Local writers Cate Gable and Robert “Bob” Pyle — included in “Cascadian Zen” — will be reading from their work this week.

Weather whiner

Trading those lovely sunny winter days for fog, wind, and gloomy rain seemed a bad trade off to me. But other friends have a more balanced attitude. One, Lynette “Lola” McAdams, wrote, “I love the winters here. Such a time of renewal. Every day I feel as if I’m in a Japanese watercolor, where you have to strain for the softly falling light and you can barely tell the difference between sand, sea, and sky. It’s so still and beautiful it almost takes my breath away.”

Yes, and … I can be so much more appreciative of winter when we get at least a couple sun windows in the day. On walks Jackson seems oblivious to becoming a thoroughly dripping wet dog; and, I suppose, with the proper attire, I can weather this too. Though I have now been tagged the “weather whiner” by a few of my intimates. (Since my return from the Southwest I’ve been looking longingly at the temps down there.) But I wanted to be with my homies for the holidays. OK, so be it.

Books by the fire

One winter pleasure I hope we can all glory in is books by the fire. Get your stack ready and — if you can — take some time to sit by the heater or a sultry slow burning fireplace and turn those pages. As if right on schedule, last week the Ilwaco Library Book Fair took place with some of my favorite authors in attendance. Sydney Stevens had stacks of her lively, amusing, and enlightening ABC series (among others). “This is one of my biggest mistakes as an author,” she said to me. “People think these are books for kids and they are definitely not!”

David Campiche was there with his new novel “Black Wing.” “It’s doing so well,” he said. “It’s been such a wonderful surprise.” A well deserved surprise I might add. David has worked lovingly on this book for years and the accolades keep rolling in. James Tweedie was also there sporting a table full of books and CDs capturing his wacky and whimsical sense of humor, a breath of fresh air tempering these divisive times.

Florence Sage had a table cozying up to Robert “Bob” Pyle. Hers was full of poetry chapbooks with lively covers and delightfully digestible lines: “The poet is between poems./ She pulls weeds from the border along her street,/ lets red leaves from the plum tree drift to stones/like a Japanese painting and stay.”

Bob’s table was full to the brim. He’s ventured from his naturalist and stunning environmental writing into poetry. (And more on this anon). Though what caught my eye was “Where Bigfoot Walks” (1995 and reissued with an update in 2017, Counterpoint Press). As Bob put it, “I went into the woods with an open mind. I didn’t mean to prove or disprove anything. Though on my last trip I did find, again, another rather large footprint in the exact area where I’d found the same thing earlier.” He noted to me that after sharing the book with Jane Goodall. she said, “I like the book very much. Only I don’t know why you were so circumspect. To me, the evidence seems overwhelming.” So there, you disbelievers!

Watershed Press and Cascadian Zen

In this same file, I want to mention a project I’ve been a party to for the last several years, first as a board members for an organization called Seattle Poetry Lab (launched and honchoed by Paul Nelson for decades); then — we changed the name — for Cascadia Poetry Lab; and finally for Watershed Press, a nonprofit publishing arm we spun-off this year.

Our first publication is a magnificent anthology called “Cascadian Zen: Volume One” which captures, in what will be a two-volume work, the voices nurtured in the land-based region called Cascadia. It’s where we live — and runs from British Columbia, through Washington, Idaho, parts of Montana and Oregon, and northern California, with a little sliver of northern Nevada (cascadia-institute.org/index.html#location).

Our region has supported and created such voices as Gary Snyder, Diane di Prima, Tess Gallagher, Judith Roche, Sam Hamill, Philip Whalen, Denise Levertov and on and on. It even includes a few of us humble locals: me and Bob Pyle. (I also have a couple brush paintings in the book.) Can I venture to say that the Cascadia ethos may well be about the weather, the can-do we don’t need umbrellas attitude; the rough-n-ready timber and fisheries industry livelihoods; the pull-yer-socks-up and get ‘er done mind frame so many of us Pacific Northwesterners revel in? Alongside this, though, there is also that beautiful sentiment so gracefully capture by Lola above — the spectacular, breath-taking beauty and majesty of our land, sea, and sky. All of this mixes together to make the writers writing about this place we call home so unique.

Cascadia readings

“Cascadian Zen” has a wonderfully soft-to-the-touch yet substantial feel, quality art reproductions, and a fold-out map of Cascadia. The whole thing is a wonder and was put together by an editing team with tons of love by Adelia Williams, Jason Wirth and Paul Nelson. These three literary comrades will be joining Bob and I and a couple others in two readings this coming week.

The first will take place at 7 p.m. in Astoria this Friday at Winekraft Wine Bar (80 10th Street, 503-468-0206); and the second in Ilwaco at Time Enough Books, Saturday at 3 p.m. (157 Howerton Ave SE #A, 360-642-7667). If you think poetry is something stuffy and inscrutable, think again. I know from experience that this is a funny irreverent group of very smart folks who just happen to have chosen word-smithing as their mode in the world. You just might find it’s the antidote you need for this gray winter weather; and if not that, at least a commemoration of it.

And, by the way, books will be for sale. (Even poets have to eat!) If you’re interested, some of us will be featured on Carol Newman’s Arts Live and Local this Friday at 3:00 P.M. as well. Poetry is a great thing to write or read on these long dark winter days when there’s plenty of time to think. Come by and celebrate Cascadia, our home, with us.