{"id":3014,"date":"2021-04-03T15:43:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T19:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/?p=3014"},"modified":"2021-04-12T12:36:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T16:36:40","slug":"deleon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2021\/04\/03\/deleon\/","title":{"rendered":"A Collection of Poems: Mother Maine, Resilience, Between Disciplines"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle de Leon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ecology and Environmental Sciences Department, University of Maine<\/h5>\n
National Science Foundation Research Traineeship on Conservation Science<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mother Maine<\/h3>\n

Maine is a place<\/span><\/p>\n

where I\u2019m leaning into a state of tension.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clouds flood me as I navigate<\/span><\/p>\n

where is home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is home here?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She meanders from the shore<\/span><\/p>\n

to her North woods,<\/span><\/p>\n

welcoming us to listen to her wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

She introduces us to a dynamic stillness<\/span><\/p>\n

where many craft images of quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Open space. Salty views. Balsam sweetness.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I still don\u2019t know where my home is.<\/span><\/p>\n

I know where a portrait of our mother hangs<\/span><\/p>\n

in my mind, all the while<\/span><\/p>\n

she changes every second.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Histories spring from her countryside and fall<\/span><\/p>\n

into our laps. You\u2019ll find me among<\/span><\/p>\n

the crashing blues and vibrant reds. At a spot where birds pair off,<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m coupling my humanity with their nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this when we name her Everlasting?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her colors fade a little later,<\/span><\/p>\n

her summer kisses linger longer, and<\/span><\/p>\n

her hugs feel warmer than we remember.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you and I do this? Perhaps this is her flow<\/span><\/p>\n

or perhaps her rivers invite us to envision resolutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Resilience<\/h3>\n

The morning sunrise whispers a sweet<\/span><\/p>\n

change is constant<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I sit with her mantra, could I rise and fall like her?<\/span><\/p>\n

The brightness paints something reassuring and terrifying<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in its vulnerability for us all to see, dragging a finger in<\/span><\/p>\n

the sand to shape stress-and-surprise cycles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two steps back shift me<\/span><\/p>\n

two steps in the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watching the sure tides,<\/span><\/p>\n

wanting familiar feelings,<\/span><\/p>\n

waiting for what\u2019s next,<\/span><\/p>\n

what if\u2014hear me out\u2014what if we transform?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(May) our goals gift us legs<\/span><\/p>\n

built to jump back.<\/span><\/p>\n

If growth were linear, could I pretend it made sense?<\/span><\/p>\n

The curves connect you and<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

me, me and them, them and that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Somewhere, we\u2019ll reap our potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s messy like wet sneakers on the beach,<\/span><\/p>\n

it\u2019ll be better than we\u2019ve ever dreamt.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Between Disciplines<\/h3>\n

A shiny new machine, a little birdy<\/span><\/p>\n

tells me <\/span>this <\/span><\/i>is innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n

He chirps his pitch, yet I\u2019m not quite<\/span><\/p>\n

sold on how it\u2019s wired when I\u2019m\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

hardwired to hear a story from<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A friend I still haven\u2019t met.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will you join hands with me and teach me<\/span><\/p>\n

how to weave your past into our present? Let this<\/span><\/p>\n

fabric embrace us through seasons of blooms and sheds.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listening to each other\u2019s rhythm, we uncover budding differences and<\/span><\/p>\n

color new directions on the map.<\/span><\/p>\n

Give yourself permission to go \u2018cross your field, collecting<\/span><\/p>\n

tools and something blue,<\/span><\/p>\n

and I\u2019ll help break ground around that same ol\u2019 song.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Messy entanglements arise<\/span><\/p>\n

yet with you,<\/span><\/p>\n

uncertainty<\/span><\/p>\n

fades away into<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

renewal.<\/span><\/p>\n

We dance across silos when I witness<\/span><\/p>\n

how our collective embodies a promise peeping over the tree line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Complexity simplifies into a lingua franca, and we begin to trust<\/span><\/p>\n

how our novel scraps shine brighter than his dull machine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1828466.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle de Leon Ecology and Environmental Sciences Department, University of Maine National Science Foundation Research Traineeship on Conservation Science   Mother Maine Maine is a place where I\u2019m leaning into a state of tension. Clouds flood me as I navigate where is home. Who is home here?   She meanders from the shore to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spire-2021-issue"],"yoast_head":"\nA Collection of Poems: Mother Maine, Resilience, Between Disciplines - The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability - University of Maine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2021\/04\/03\/deleon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Collection of Poems: Mother Maine, Resilience, Between Disciplines - The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability - University of Maine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Michelle de Leon Ecology and Environmental Sciences Department, University of Maine National Science Foundation Research Traineeship on Conservation Science   Mother Maine Maine is a place where I\u2019m leaning into a state of tension. 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