Special event: Tim McNulty reads Robert Sund, Bellingham 5/15

Notes from Disappearing Lake: The River Journals of Robert Sund
A reading by Tim McNulty
May 15, 2012; 7 pm
Readings Gallery at Village Books, 1200 11th Street, Bellingham
Join North Cascades Institute at Village Books’ Readings Gallery May 15 at 7 pm for a free reading from the new book Notes from Disappearing Lake: The River Journals of Robert Sund. Edited by Sund’s close friends Tim McNulty and Glenn Hughes, this volume assembles poem-like journal entries by the esteemed Pacific Northwest poet from his shack on the Skagit River estuary. With freshness and immediacy, these pieces reveal the poet’s ongoing artistic discipline based on close attention to the natural world, as well as his spiritual insight, humor, and love for all that illuminates the mind and lifts the heart. Notes from Disappearing Lake captures a creative spirit and an artistic moment in one of the Northwest’s most mystically beautiful landscapes.
Robert Sund and Fishtown fans will also be excited to know that the Institute is leading a canoe voyage to Robert’s shack and the lower Skagit River estuary on May 20 as part of the Skagit River Poetry Festival. There is also a special panel on Fishtown and barbeque celebration at Pioneer Park that night that the public is invited to. Details on all of these related events are on our Bulletin Board.
Robert Sund (1929 – 2001) grew up on a small farm in Washington’s Chehalis Valley and studied with poet Theodore Roethke at the University of Washington before settling in the Skagit Valley. His poetry reflects a deep, lifelong engagement with landscape and community. He is the author of Poems from Ish River Country: Collected Poems and Translations, and Taos Mountain.
Tim McNulty is a poet, essayist, and nature writer. He is the author of two poetry collections, In Blue Mountain Dusk, and Pawtracks, and ten poetry chapbooks including Cloud Studies, Some Ducks, and Through High Still Air. He is also the author of eleven books on natural history, including Olympic National Park: A Natural History.

July, 1973

Snipe walking through the
flowers & grasses
picking worms & bugs out of
the mud —
Wren on the front porch
tiny feet
tick tick.
Robin, swallow
crow, seagull, heron
goldfinch, duck
blackbird . . .
Who needs a radio?
Song at morning
song at evening
and all day long . . .
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Photos courtesy of Erik Ambjor.