WriteOut SnowBuckwheat and More

SNOW BUCKWHEAT AT CRESCENT BAY

The shrub-steppe’s own snow buckwheat dances in the autumn breeze, it’s white flowers form whorls with tepals that turn a bit pink in September while the hairy leaves balance at its base. The delicate flowering of snow buckwheat, Eriogonum niveum, has now turned brown, ready to drop its seeds for fall germination. It grows east of the Cascades in sagebrush desert and openings of Ponderosa Pine forests.

Mule deer and big horn sheep feed on this, especially in winter. It provides cover for small animals and birds. Many pollinators, including bees and butterflies depend on it, especially the endangered Mormon Metalmark butterfly (Apodemia mormo). It’s an important plant in the shrub-steppe of eastern Washington. It can be planted in the fall from seeds in rock gardens.

Okanagan-Colville Native Americans used the plant for colds and for washing cuts.

Some Native American children played a game with the small branches.  The broke off a branch, then the main stem to leave a hook shape. Putting the hook shapes together, they pulled. The child whose stem did not break was the winner.

And today, it is an extension of a collaborative poetry project.

COLLABORATIVE POETRY

Sarah Honeychurch and Kevin Hodgson have created a prompt on the Daily Create, an online space of daily creative prompts. Today’s Prompt, tdc4665, is a collaborative poem:

“Let’s create a collaborative poem with each  line added, about a tree. Each participant adds a line, growing the poem like a forest. We will then shape the contributions into a larger piece about interconnections. Use this Etherpad site to add your lines to the collaborative poem.”The Daily Create #tdc4665

Etherpad is a collaborative online writing space. Just click the link to this Etherpad site and add your own lines to the poem. Here’s what I added:

an anchor, grounding
its home
a conduit, conveying
sustenance to the stem
seeking the warmth of the sun

Sheri, on this Etherpad site

As of 3 PM PST on October 21st, 2024, here’s the collaborative poem so far– each color is a different author.

The forest in poetry is growing! Go ahead! Give it a try.

MY EXTENSION

As soon as I wrote the lines, I thought of the autumn changes in snow buckwheat, a favorite flower of mine. I already had photos [above] and art [below] to which I could add a poem that included the stanza from the Daily Create collaboration and the changes of autumn’s snow buckwheat.

In Autumn

on steep slopes
by the dusty path
snow buckwheat’s pale pink
browns as September cools,
dropping seeds
sprouting in the wet and cool
of the autumn
where its tap roots
soak up moisture—
the roots
an anchor, grounding
its home
a conduit, conveying
sustenance to the stem
seeking the warmth of the sun,
leaves ready for new growth
in spring

#writeout
Sheri Edwards
Art/Poetry
10.21.24

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JOIN IN!

This post is part of the October WRITEOUT adventure, October 13 through the 27th, partnership of the National Writing Project and the National Park Service — a chance to enjoy the outdoors with poetry, prose, and parks for Write Out 2024. Organized as a public invitation to get out and create, supported by a series of free online activities, Write Out invites educators, students, and families to explore national parks and other public spaces. The goal is to connect and learn through place-based writing and sharing.  Check out this infographic for the flow of the this week and the Choice Board to get you started for WriteOut’s Poetry for the Planet.

Learn more and sign up: https://writeout.nwp.org

This is my seventh year with WriteOut with all my WriteOut posts here.