William Cusick Chapter, Native Plant Society of Oregon


William Cusick Chapter Native Plant Society of Oregon

2013 NPSO Annual Meeting!!

The William Cusick Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon is headquartered in La Grande, with members in Baker, Malheur, Union, and Wallowa counties.

President:Susan Geer
Vice President: Dick Austin
Treasurer: Kent Coe
Secretary: Laurie Allen

Contact for the chapter is Susan Geer: 541-963-0477 or, email her at susanmgeer "at" gmail.com (replace "at" with an @ symbol). Laurie Allen can reached at 541-805-0499.

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COMMUNICATION: In general, notification for official announcements of meetings and activities will be sent via our chapter's e-mail listing maintained by the chapter secretary (see above for contact information) if you wish to be added to this list.

Meeting and field trip information will be published in the NPSO Bulletin if available by publication due date. The information will also be published in the La Grande and Baker City newspapers.

Doug Fir -- Poetry by Richard W. Mack

David Douglas, botanist, explorer
years ago you lived life as an adventure
always by sea you traveled
to the harbor in Rio
to the rocky reach of Galapagos
to America’s timbered coast
then seeking your final curiosity
in the Sandwich Islands
a misguided love triangle
trampled your life into history

today you live in my barn
your name whispers in the rafters
the beams, the walls, all are calling
Doug fir is the wood of choice
in the wood butcher’s trade

two hundred year old trees
they were here when you paddled
the Columbia and the Walla Walla
maybe you saw them
lofty branches now erased from the skyline
ripped into prescribed dimensions
monarchs reduced to board feet

today you live in my barn
your genus planed to rippled grains of satin
rafters like the ribs of whales
architected by the geometry of angles
escorted by sunlight and shadow

David Douglas, years ago
you lived life as an adventure
was it a life divined by a compass blessed
or conflicted by a misguided magnet
either way
it doesn’t matter to the wood
in the barn
that whispers your name

Doug Fir was published in Reflections In A Western River, Poems & Essays by Richard W. Mack and is reprinted by permission of the author. Rick Mack's books are listed with the Writers Guild of Eastern Oregon, www.wgeo.org