HUM: A lyrical field journal
Poems and essays inspired by Northern landscapes, wildlife, and inspiring writers
Melissa Kalinowski
Poet & Writer | Self-taught Naturalist
Across the four seasons, I hike and observe the natural wonders around the Minnesota Valley wetlands and the Mississippi River. This terrain inspires my writings. My poems have appeared in Concision Poetry Journal, Kaleidoscope, and others.
94-Day Trek Across Antarctica, February 2001
The news in Sunday’s paper, history
Was made with skiers: Ann and Liv on ice.
![[There’s pain as fingertips stiffen like cattails]](https://i0.wp.com/poetryhive.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Red-tailed-hawk-la25-3.png?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1)
[There’s pain as fingertips stiffen like cattails]
There’s pain as fingertips stiffen like cattails.
A Wish for Silent Nights
The owl’s ability to hear was greater than most. I tested mine by turning my back to the reeds. Could I detect their movements in the wind by sound unaided by sight?
Acts of Discovery: Waves to Shells and Floods to Flowers
The first time I walked a Pacific Ocean beach was as a girl on a trip to Washington. Feeling electrified, I waded among the tumultuous movements and sounds from the waves.
The Pine
Suffers from a wound. Its resin flows like a stream, down the trunk…
Lake Breezes, Now and Before
I wish I might always feel their presence …
The Way
Of the way the bumblebee goes, hangs upside down …
Serenity
Let the peace of a summer night ascend burdens from the day …
The Valley
It was there when the wind parted the leaves …
Summer Pictures
A goldfinch erupts from a thistle colony …
On a Summer’s Day
Yellow spears of loosestrife band together and march along the creek …
About the Future
I’m not afraid; buttercups glow like fireflies in the night sky …
Tree, Crooked Rock & Flames
Wildflowers begin and wander deep into the woods. What surprises come next?
At Lakeside
… lucky for the swallows, the roots up through the trunk withstood winter while the neighboring tree, dying, fell down …
Queens of the Forest
When they rise from beds in peace with pink slippers and pearly diadems, we fall for them.
Shooting Stars
There is a Milky Way in the meadow, starry flowers in the grass…
A Day at the Lake
The hatchlings must claw free from underground, crawl over land to the lake, and swim. One day these precocial creatures may unknowingly encounter their parents and share a basking log.
Up Early
A thicket of seed lanterns shine