The Hoh Rain Forest Trail CirclesMoss living on light & air.
A chipmunk gobbling a cone dark & rich as mud. His beady, wary eye. The birds whose calls no one can whistle or sing. What’s left of trees. The absences under roots of the trees that nursed on them, that now, huge themselves, root partly on wind & irresistible explore-able emptiness, tons of tree rising above your head, nervous dryad. The saplings beside. Half-born trees. Young thin trees, old ones thickening hundreds of feet, the branches spreading gauzy wings to feed on particles & waves. The small white moth dotting the air. The rich air. Glorious air. How it feeds the flying things. The resting things. The growing dying hidden holy things. Gods small as moths & bigger around than all these monstrous-ly beautiful trees. And inside the improbable wood nymphs’ astonishing song you find yourself inside the wood inside each small & wary eye inside the point of light dotting through branches inside the one square inch of forest silence. |
Though Washington’s landscape varies greatly between north, south, east, west, mountains, coast, plains, and all the places in between, the Olympic Peninsula feels not only like a seperate physical setting, but a separate time. Stepping into the Hoh Rainforest is like traveling back to the Jurassic period full of ancient trees dripping with vibrant mosses that overhang to create an eerie darkness, even when the fickle sun makes a rare appearance. “Magic” is a good word to describe the atmosphere of the rainforest, and Neile Graham’s “The Hoh Rainforest Trail Circles” captures that Hoh-specific essence in all its detailed glory. Some of Graham’s most potent imagery relies on describing parts of nature as being holy or god-like. This high-level comparison ensures that audiences know how special or revered the space within the rainforest is to the speaker. For example, she describes air as “Glorious air” (22) that feeds:
...The growing dying hidden holy things. Gods small as moths & bigger around than all these monstrous-ly beautiful trees (24-28). In calling the air glorious, and describing the holy “things” as being small Gods everywhere - growing, dying, etc. - the entirety of the rainforest comes to life with spiritual meaning and reverence. Graham’s imagery bathes the Hoh Rainforest in the mystique of the Olympic Peninsula, even for readers who have never physically been there. She connects people to place by bringing the rainforest to the readers, writing, “tons of tree rising above your head” (13) and “inside the improbable wood nymphs’ / astonishing / song you find yourself inside the wood” (29-31). By addressing the audience directly as “you” and describing the scene that surrounds them as the subject, Graham builds the Hoh Rainforest around the reader. The rainforest’s magic is so rooted in physical place that it is difficult to understand outside of being there, but Graham manages to use 35 lines of poetry to fabricate the essence of the heart of the Olympic Peninsula on paper. By directly addressing the audience, Graham creates a familiarity that puts the author and the reader on an equal playing field where they see and experience the moment together, as opposed to a more hierarchical storytelling framework. While Washington landscape differs regionally, the Olympic Peninsula is saturated in something special that is best explained through art. Neile Graham’s poetry is a great case study for art that builds and brings the Hoh to the audience just as it exists physically. By comparing its pieces and atmosphere to that of spiritual holiness and painting a detailed picture surrounding the reader, Graham makes place-based poetry relevant in every setting. By Nola Peshkin |
Neile Graham Biography
Born in Manitoba, Neile Graham earned her undergraduate degree in creative writing from the University of Victoria, and her MFA at University of Montana where she studied under Richard Hugo. For nearly 30 years since, Graham has served as the program administrator for both the PhD in the Built Environment and the interdisciplinary certificates in Urban Design and Historic Preservation in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. She also administers the Clarion West Writers Workshop. Graham has published 5 books of poetry, and much of her work is based in themes of place and folklore.
