Numinosity: A New England Forester’s Search for the Ineffable by Robert T. Perschel
“In Jungian psychology, the term ‘numinous’ describes encounters with a mysterious, awe-inspiring, and powerful force that is often associated with the transcendent…”
This, from the opening pages of Bob Perschel’s new chapbook, Numinosity, invites us into his world—to share in the intimacy of his wanderings and his encounters with the mystery of life.
In describing stones found on a bar in the Snake River in Wyoming, the poet offers:
The last one, the smallest and lightest one,
Has the power to change reality.
Hold it in the palm of your hand.
You can make the world
Whatever you want it to be.
How magical! Much of the writing describes the beauty of nature, but there is a shadow side, too, as Perschel contemplates the ecological crisis we are in. In “An Epistle to Be Left on the Earth,” he writes:
There is little time
Even the birds have left you.
Three billion missing
And you don’t know where they’ve gone.
Perschel has spent many years in forests, wetlands, rivers, deserts, and other wild places, as a professional forester and as a citizen of the world. The book includes essays and stories in addition to poems—for example, a triptych of two essays and one poem on “Marking Timber,” in which the author contemplates the meaning of the ordinary work of marking trees to be cut. “Is this the right thing to do?” he asks. “How well does this action fit into the natural flow of the forest?”
And in the poet’s voice, he later says:
I make a blue spot
The woodcutter comes and kills the tree
I make paper from the tree
(In the old way)
On the paper I write a poem
That mentions trees and beauty
You read it
Yes, I read it. I am delighted to read it. When I received my copy of Numinosity I read it front to back, savoring each word, loving the world in which Perschel lives, knowing that he and others like him are caring for it and writing about it.
To learn more and purchase the book, visit Barnes and Noble or Amazon Books.
Recommended by Liz Thompson