Merry Lea to host nature poetry reading

WOLF LAKE, Ind. — Poet and wetland ecologist Dr. Mary Linton has spent a lifetime steeped in the natural world. She’s gone from Midwestern farm girl to scientist, but she’s always believed that a day mucking about a fertile wetland could not be better spent.

Linton will share her poetry at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 21 at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College, Wolf Lake, Ind. She describes her reading as “Unorganized praise; a celebration of the landscapes of the Midwest.”

Linton’s poetry has appeared in the journals Appalachia, Aethlon, Blueline, Builder, Country Feedback Magazine, Farming Magazine, Friend’s Journal, HUMMINGBIRD, Poetry Motel, Seeding the Snow, and Verse Wisconsin. Poems have also appeared in the books, Making Poems: Forty Poems with Commentary by the Poets, edited by Todd Davis and Erin Murphy; Blackhawk Island Poems, edited by Ann Engelman; Land, Water, Sky: what is this place? edited by Deborah Scott; and Women Speak Women, edited by Erin Clymer. Linton hails from Fort Atkinson, Wis.

Attenders are invited to bring a nature poem of their own to share. Light refreshments and a ramble through Merry Lea’s prairies will also be part of the evening. The coneflowers are blooming despite the drought, and the weather forecast is calling for dry weather with a chilly high of 87.

Attenders should meet at Merry Lea’s Farmstead site. Cost: $5. See Merry Lea’s web site at merrylea.goshen.edu for details and directions, or call 260-799-5869. Advance registration is appreciated. Email jenniferhs@goshen.edu.