Calvin VanErgens (Michigan, USA)
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WANTED: TAXONOMIST
Specializing in lichens.
Though learning to name
and notice them is to be
taxing, they’re not to be
missed, as I know I do.
One or two I know, like
those likened to and
liked by reindeer and
thus called accordingly.
But I want to know, can
I nap in its spongy bed
in forest rain? Your help is
appreciated. Appreciation
will be easier with help—
of their color, not that of
blazing summer flower
and autumn leaf, yet some
of nature’s best. Calm. If
blazing, then a pinprick of
blood red. Sometimes color
on a tree in Michigan I’d
expect in Bahamian
ocean. If over a dozen
species nestle on an old
split rail, what does a
forest hold? Could you
walk me through it?
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Calvin VanErgens is a poet from a place called the Great Lakes State: Michigan, USA. He often uses poems to tell made-up stories in the voices of the made-up people. The poetry of Calvin VanErgens has recently appeared at the Reformed Journal and the Reformed Journal podcast and at Ekstasis.