Synkroniciti is excited to welcome back poet and photographer Laura Rodley with a bouquet of poetry and images celebrating hidden wildness. The five-part series is bookended by “Now You See Me,” in which a young Garter Snake stares quizzically at us from his leafy refuge, and “Mr. Invisible,” in which a beaver hunches camouflaged next to a pond. These gorgeous photos take so much patience and skill. Laura’s poetry is equally striking. First, in “Could Be,” she takes us looking for peeper frogs, announced by their recognizable call: “Anything, the peepers shrill yet melodic trill, the way it curves against the anvil of the eardrums, its bones, rides the stirrup cups to make the hearer taste Heaven—”. The imagery and gentle rhythm of the verse is certainly heavenly. We continue with “Refuge,” an experience at Gray Lodge Wildlife Area near Gridley, CA. Laura examines the tenuous bargain made between humans and wildlife. “Here, the land was God’s first, and the geese claimed their parking spots in flight paths as ancient as the call to religion, the call to know for certain what is behind the curtain of the sky.” “Lake Absinthe” transports us underwater, the lake beating against our body, sunlight filtering down. A passing rain shower “taps a Morse code of hurry, swallow me up.” These are breathtaking moments, exquisitely set in verse that is musical and intelligent, asking us to stop our human patterns and take in what nature reveals.
Experience Laura’s delightful vision in Synkroniciti’s “Wild” issue: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley is a seven-time Pushcart Prize nominee, quintuple Best of the Net Nominee. Her recent books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press and As You Write It Lucky 7, printed by Leveller’s Press.