The following piece is an excerpt from Glenn Bach’s Atlas, a long poem about place and our (mis)understanding of the world. Atlas began in 2003 as a sound art project, but has since evolved into an open-ended long poem.
prescribed fire is medicine one
hopeful note you see the canyons
are green (indicating the tops
of trees) fire loves the path
of least resistance before it came
to these mountains the finger-
prints of climate change all over
the wildfires and so many other
on the horizon it’d be great here
to have that rain! an ordinary star
over an extraordinary mountain
hopeful note you see the canyons
are green (indicating the tops
of trees) fire loves the path
of least resistance before it came
to these mountains the finger-
prints of climate change all over
the wildfires and so many other
on the horizon it’d be great here
to have that rain! an ordinary star
over an extraordinary mountain
through brush & timber from the
mountains to the desert in other
words don’t panic 90% of Devil’s
Punchbowl smokey los angeles this
could be us will see a large plume
of smoke just in case you guys
start freaking out another one in the
books we know there is strategic
firing going on made the mtns
GLOW RED scary AF! my
heart burns with my state! a gut
punch to see the destruction
wrought
mountains to the desert in other
words don’t panic 90% of Devil’s
Punchbowl smokey los angeles this
could be us will see a large plume
of smoke just in case you guys
start freaking out another one in the
books we know there is strategic
firing going on made the mtns
GLOW RED scary AF! my
heart burns with my state! a gut
punch to see the destruction
wrought
the forest is recovering but
that may not happen the next
time a chamise plant clearly
burned you can see the dead
stems and young green sprouts
out of the same roots plants
are water faucets that do better
because of the fire dropping
seeds only after they’ve burned
and died you can suppress all
you want but smaller fires
should burn in summer
that may not happen the next
time a chamise plant clearly
burned you can see the dead
stems and young green sprouts
out of the same roots plants
are water faucets that do better
because of the fire dropping
seeds only after they’ve burned
and died you can suppress all
you want but smaller fires
should burn in summer
