“Bonyun Preserve” for Kennebec Estuary Land Trust
by David Crews
This past fall, I found placement to work at an organic farm along the coast of Maine in a little town called Phippsburg. It was Rachel Carson’s third book in her trilogy on the seas that brought me here, and I was immediately drawn—as so many are—to the geology of the Maine coast. Here, bedrock and evergreen forest stretch all the way down to much of the shore line. The glacial history has both carved a rugged mountain terrain and flooded much of the coast where, at the edge of the sea, one can find some incredible estuary ecosystems. An estuary is an example of an ecotone—a region of transition between biological communities—where saltwater from the sea mixes with freshwater from the river to generate a complex ecosystem in flux. The below poem is part of a larger sequence for the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust titled “Kennebec River,” though this particular visit to Bonyun Preserve on Westport Island—what is Abenaki ancestral land—occurred on a quiet morning in October.
David Crews
Nov, 2020
Bonyun Preserve
I walk the wooded trail down to the estuary, a return
big trees loom—white pine, hemlock, balsam fir
they will follow the descent of the land, where the tides
move
ebb and flow
the water’s pull upon rock and root and
wind in the pines
wind in the pines
pine wind
pine song
David Crews is a writer, editor, and wilderness advocate who currently resides in southern Vermont / ancestral lands of Mohican and Abenaki peoples. He cares for work that engages a reconnection to land and place, wilderness, preservation, nonviolence. He currently serves as managing editor for Wild Northeast.. Find David and more of his work at davidcrewspoetry.com
Kennebec Estuary Land Trust (kennebecestuary.org) is committed to conserving land and wildlife habitat of the Lower Kennebec and Sheepscot River estuaries. They are a community based membership organization serving the towns of Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoinham, Dresden, West Bath, Georgetown, Richmond, Westport Island and Woolwich.
The above poem is part of a longer sequence for the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust titled “Kennebec River.”