[11/10/26] Dickman, Michael: PLANT COMMUNITIES OF NEW JERSEY

PLANT COMMUNITIES OF NEW JERSEY is a new collection of poems by Michael Dickman that explores the ecosystems of plants and people. These poems speak to the bright flowers of spring and the dark shadows they cast.

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You can make a butterfly with a scrap of tinfoil and a square
Of origami paper held together
With little black twist ties
For legs

A chipmunk chases another chipmunk
Across the towpath

I love you
I love you
I love you they say

This is the soft part we get to keep for ourselves

A fairy ring made of neon orange mushrooms and spent Narcan cartridges is still a fairy ring

The grocery store carnations are pink and yellow and not quite white

A snail
Plows through the Pleistocene
Its shell a map of the Milky Way

The Phragmites call to the cattails

The cattails call to the past

(from “PLANT COMMUNITIES OF NEW JERSEY”)

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Michael Dickman was born and raised in the Lents neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. He is the author of five collections of poems, including Flies, winner of the 2010 James Laughlin Award, Days & Days, a New York Times Best Poetry Book of 2019, and most recently Pacific Power & Light. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in Princeton, New Jersey.