Joe Wilkin

I don't usually focus on pure nature poetry, but some of it goes beyond it's ken and is amazing on other levels. Joe Wilkin's poem "First Rain" in Dialogist no. 1, issue 2 is a good example of this. It has a strong sense of place and feeling, along with a great environment that comes to life. And beneath this there are other meanings, unsettling ones. This is great if you like subtle, refined gothic pieces.

Here's an excerpt:

From the thin, high limbs of the black oak
the sparrows watched the man pause

beneath the eave. Then step into the rain.
As this was the corner of the season

the rain came cold and hard
and was the color of certain stones—

[...]           stones

flew darkly through the first rain.