Pump House, Clouds and Lilies in Waters of Haines Cranberry Bogs, Chatsworth
A trio of poems, arrow’s in this activist’s quiver:
Probably all NJWILDBEAUTY readers know that, last Friday, the Pinelands Commission DARED approve the first pipeline in New Jersey’s Crown Jewel: The Pine Barrens. This one is “The South Jersey Gas Pipeline Project.” A pipeline by any name would smell as foul. The Pinelands Commission was founded to preserve, protect, even enhance this 1.1 million-acre wooded region, sited atop the legendary 17-trillion-gallion Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer of highest quality water.
Traditional Cranberry Harvest Tool
Former NJ Governors Brendan Byrne, Jim Florio and Christine Todd Whitman joined forces to file a Friend of Court Brief to overturn approval of the Pipeline. But the forces of greed have won anew, and New Jersey will never be the same. Our beautiful state is being turned into a Sacrifice Zone, and who is to arrest this destruction?
Essence of the Bogs, Chatsworth
Once, I lamented to a caller, “I’m a poet. What am I doing at the barricades?” The activist on the other end of the line retorted, “Carolyn, that’s where poets belong.”
I’m not good with barricades. Although I support and thrill to effective protest marches, they are beyond my physical/spiritual/mental/emotional strength.
Pinelands’ Pristine Tannic Waters, Batsto
The only arrows in my quiver are Pinelands poems. Here are a few, to remind NJWILDBEAUTY readers of what we are about to forfeit:
This was one of the original “Hot Poems by Cool Women”, a favorite of what we came to see as our poetic groupies, as our various new volumes reached the public through readings:
IT ALL STARTED
when we came upon
carpets of stars
cranberries in flower
trembling white below
the ice blue sky
along the hard-packed dikes
slumbrous bees
formed golden pyramids
on gleaming amber boxes
dawn’s pollinators
here to burst all bonds
course among broad acres
of waving stamens
at day’s end we stood on tiptoe
plucking first blued berries
from among the mauve and pink
at the tips of overarching bushes
tucked among hollies and sheep laurel
through thickets and tunnels
we made our way to the sea
mouths awash in warm berries
CAROLYN FOOTE EDELMANN
Cool Women, Volume I
RESURGENT
I long to slip into
peat water
watch my long legs turn
orange, then burnt sienna
bathed in tannins of old leaves
and newly desiccated needles
having steeped over the centuries
between primordial banks
I belong to the Pines and its peat
whether striding or swimming
requiring levels and mystery
–silent liquidities
–eloquent duskiness
even on bright days
over there, on a low branch
a slim snake twines
somnolent and sure
overhead, in the pine tops
winds echo ocean
near yet far
time keeps these waters warm
enough to welcome legs
too long denied the Pinelands
see how my limbs flicker and flash
–burnished in peatwater
–flames in the depths
CAROLYN FOOTE EDELMANN
US 1 Fiction Issue,
D&R Greenway Poets of Preservation
Written in Princeton Hospital
Immediately post-op – 11 11 11
CRANAPPLE PIE
I’ve gathered apples of our Barrens
to blend with bright cranberries
sparked with honey of dawn’s bees
we two once awakened
on Chatsworth’s sandy dikes
I craft a random European tart
— ragged edges, coverless
in honor of your world that I so crave
in memory of ragged days, uncovered nights
the luminous glaze
oddly recollects
your ignited gaze
thrown back at me
in this new solitude
every inch of rooms you cherished
becomes apple-fragrant
our joyous kitchen above all
my fruits become a brigand’s cache
–rubies tossed with fine abandon
as I once flung caution to wild winds
when you stretched out fine hands
luring me, pirate-like, to irresistible back bays
CAROLYN FOOTE EDELMANN
Cool Women, Volume Two
Jersey’s Jewels, Sugar Sand, Chatsworth
Once, I carried books of others’ poems into hearings at Prallsville Mills, in my futile, idealistic attempt to convince decision-makers not to allow “The Villas of Tuscany”, –currently “Barclay Square” –, towering condos. to profane our cherished, historic D&R Canal and Towpath.
I read words of Paul Muldoon and Gerry Stern and friends who later became the Cool Women, insisting that art is born in New Jersey beauty. Trampling her open spaces, defiling sightlines of the canal — for these travesties are visible even deep down upon her waters in a kayak — destroys not only habitat for essential wild creatures. It also spells the end of inspiration, the cessation of art catalyzed in these storied reaches.
Pipelines are nonessential, destructive, temporary in terms of jobs provided, and threaten ignition of the Pines and fouling of the pristine waters of the Pine Barrens.
Don’t let this happen. Use whatever arrows are in your quiver to preserve, protect, and even enhance our entire state!
Cranberries on the Vine, Chatsworth
Pine Barrens Just-Picked Dry-harvested Cranberries as Sauce Extraordinaire, Back Home
Cranberry Dry Harvest, Early November, 2015
This rich harvest tour took place through Pinelands Adventures: http://www.pinelandsadventures.org;
Which organization has come into being under the auspices of ever-militant, thoroughly vigilant Pinelands Preservation Alliance: JOIN THEM — they turn around damage to the Pines, week after week after week: http://www.pinelandsalliance.org
Batsto Barn – Pine Barrens’ Mercantile History, Legendary Iron Forge Village
Without “The Iron in the Pines”, from forges such as Batsto and Allaire and Martha’s Furnace, and beyond, George Washington would not have had cannon balls nor wagon wheels for Revolutionary Battles. Pinelands shipbuilders and ship’s captains effectively fought the British and the Hessians, boldly advertising auctions of stores of captured ships in Philadelphia papers. Mullica Rivermen rowed with muffled oars to change the course of history. It is said, we would not have a country without the Mullica, without the Pine Barrens!
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