Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles
The room is alivea haven of calm reposeawaiting the artist’s arrivalThe bedsteadstands readythe ultimate refugesheets washed in morning dewscraped carefully from the petals of sunflowersin the early morning hoursjust before dawnwith buttery soft pillowsready to cushion the hot-headed painterwhen he finally comes homeThe green shuttersclose out the night’s screaming-bright starsblocking the café’s sickly greenish lightpromising […]
The Emerald Tablet
Flower and TwigFeather and HornDeathless yet DyingBirthless yet Bornthis is the natureof all perceptionthe birthplace of all seeingfor the truth of seeingto become manifestwe must ascendfrom earth to heavenwhere we separatethe Earth from the Firethe Subtle from the Grossbut gently…gentlyand with all our wits about usif we hope at allto marry them in the endto […]
What is the meaning of…
Wheatfield with Crows by Vincent Van Gogh How are we to understand the Wheatfield with Crows1 by Vincent Van Gogh? Or, for that matter, how are we to understand any painting? As Heidegger has pointed out, “On the usual view the work arises out of and by means of the activity of the artist.”2 Rather than shun the […]
Bitterroot River Protection Association
Michael is the Director/Waterkeeper for the Bitterroot River Protection Association. BRPA is a WATERKEEPER Alliance Affiliate and the director also serves as the Bitterroot River Waterkeeper. The role of the Program Director/WATERKEEPER for the BRPA is broad. It means advocating for the Bitterroot River and its tributaries in every way possible. It involves working with […]
Like fish and butterflies
being wild is a waywild being is the same wayonly differentthoughts like wild troutslipping by just below the surfacegoing with the flowdownstream over the fallsand then, like Salmon, back up againhalf-swimminghalf-flyingfreelyunrelentinglyup the fallsback to the sourcea good place to give birtha good place to diewhere the earth’s most serious thoughtmust astonishingly give wayto the nextsuddenly […]
Where Wildflowers Bloom
by Michael Howell Look, my love I have returned empty-handed I can no longer pluck life’s beauty and bring it home to watch it fade, wilt and die upon the table-top So please, give me your hand and let me lead you to the meadow where beauty thrives Let us hover amongst the lupine with […]
Saving the Mitchell
This is the inside story of a decade-long legal battle against a covey of millionaires and billionaires to stop the gutting to stop the gutting of Montana’s Stream Access Law and the removal of almost every stream and river in the state from environmental protection under the Montana Natural Streambed and Land Preservation Act of 1975. […]
A Community Project
Our Spring Semester 2022 Bitterroot College UM Environmental Science Class wanted to investigate leachate from stream sediments and gravel road materials to determine if these could be a source of non-point-source and point source lead (Pb) pollution to our Bitterroot River. Montana’s DEQ has identified lead in the lower basin Bitterroot River in their 2014 […]
Streaming
for what it’s worth the water flows pausing in winter only on the surface always singing underneath while slipping headlong over stones turned soft as green moss by the wet kiss of a fluid element that’s come to wear them down round them off and smooth them freeing them from that stony silence that pretends […]
Composing A Day
Although our brains are bright how often they shine with the tricky light of a false dawn leading us to believe that the day has already arrived until the night suddenly snatches us back dipping us deeply in her dark inkwell one last time before letting us write the real meaning of the morning across […]