Barry Wallenstein
Inosculation
Artist Statement: Talking & Listening to Plants
As a young man in 1972, I bought a cabin in the Western Catskills, more or less isolated uphill from a trout stream and surrounded by woods. This was my first extended time away from the sights and sounds, concrete and noise, of the city. I remember being struck and moved by the various sounds of the wind ruffling the leaves. This was a new language for me, and being there, within this new atmosphere, led me to nature poems, mainly those written by others, but finally to my own. My first book (Beast is a Wolf with Brown Fire, 1977) includes poems that reflect this plant-filled, animal rich, fresh air environment. I still like the title poem:
“Beast is a Wolf with Brown Fire”
runs across meadows
and bounds up into
old farms, now stubbly
and overgrown.
she runs through brush
she rests among the evergreen
and the poplar.
her eyes are pinned to the light
flickering through the leaves.
she pants white mist, she lounges,
she changes sex in the shadows
and emerges in red fire.
the beast is a wolf and
she goes to you
she’s found you out,
my love.
One day I hope to make a poem out of what I, early on, didn’t understand. When I first saw the ants crawling on the buds of the peonies during my first early spring in nature, I had no idea why they were there, so I shook them off. No, I was informed, the ants are helping the peonies to open and flower. Now I imagine the ants communicating with the peonies, and they understand each other.
Barry Wallenstein has published eleven collections of poetry, most recently, It’s About Time (New York Quarterly Books, 2022). His poetry has appeared in over 100 journals, including Ploughshares, The Nation, American Poetry Review, and Manhattan Review. He also presents poetry readings in collaboration with jazz. He has made twelve recordings of his poetry with jazz, the most recent being Lisbon Sunset (2018) and Lisbon Sunrise (2022). Barry is Emeritus Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the City University of New York and an editor of the journal American Book Review and advisory editor of BigCityLit.