Poetic Matrix Press
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From the Editor

Selections from the two-hundred articles written and published by John Muir
are offered here to provide stepping-stones for inspiration and thoughtfulness
for your writing and sketching journey.  Considered to be one of the great
mountaineers and one of the earliest plant ecologists, Muir saw with clarity
the world he sought to preserve for all time.  He was one of Nature’s
visionaries.  As you walk your own pathless journey of discovery in Nature
and wilderness may you find that the gentleness of Muir's spirit and the
keenness of his sight provide a guiding light as you seek to find ways to draw
yourself nearer to the goodness and greatness that abounds upon mountain
tops, in warm sunny meadows, and near cool streams.
- Bonnie Johanna Gisel

Bio

Bonnie Johanna Gisel is a naturalist, artist, nature writer, and historian who
has written extensively about the life and work of John Muir.  Presently she is
at work on a book on John Muir and his life as a botanist.  She is the author of
the introduction to John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures and the
author and editor of Kindred & Related Spirits: The Letters of John Muir and
Jeanne C. Carr.  She has published articles and lectured on John Muir and her
own journeys in wilderness, including “A Song in Several Keys. Yosemite
Journal,” that appeared in California Tour and Travel.  Bonnie is the curator at
the Sierra Club’s LeConte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite National Park, where
she designs environmental education programs including the “Nature
Journal,” the Wilderness Quilt Project, Words for Wilderness Around the
World, and Green Shoes.
If poets and lovers of poetry don't write, publish,
read, and purchase poetry books then we will have
no say in the quality of our contemporary culture
and no excuse for the abuses of language, ideas,
truth, beauty, and love in our cultural life.
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Reviews
NATURE JOURNAL
WITH
JOHN MUIR
EDITED BY
BONNIE JOHANNA GISEL

Available in hardcover and paperback.
paperback - 160 pages, price $14.00,
ISBN 0-9714003-5-0  
hardcover - 160 pages, price $20.00,
ISBN 0-9714003-7-7          
Nature Journal with John Muir reviewed on Amazon.com by Jill Harcke
These journals are perfect for workshops, classes, writing,
hiking, and sketching groups; for youth groups and adults.  
Please contact the publisher for  quantity discounts.
I made up a bundle of bread, tied my note-book to my belt, and
strode away in the bracing air, full of eager, indefinite hope.
Then came evening, and the somber cliffs were inspired with the
ineffable beauty of the alpenglow.  A solemn calm fell upon every
feature of the landscape.  All the lower portion of the canyon
was in gloaming shadow, and I crept into a hollow near one
of the upper lakelets to smooth away the burrs from a sheltered
spot for a bed.  When the short twilight faded I kindled a sunny
fire, made a cup of tea, and lay down with my face to the deep
clean sky.  Soon the night-wind began to flow and pour
in torrents among the jagged peaks, mingling its strange
tones with those of the waterfalls sounding far below.
I never before saw a plant so full of life; so perfectly spiritual,
it seemed pure enough for the throne of its Creator.  I felt as if I
were in the presence of superior beings who loved me
and beckoned me to come.  I sat down beside them
and wept for joy.  Could angels in their better land show us
a more beautiful plant?  How good is our Heavenly Father
in granting us such friends as are these plant-creatures,
filling us wherever we go with pleasure so deep,
so pure, so endless.
Perhaps you have already said that you have seen enough for a
lifetime.  But before you go away you should spend at least
one day and a night on a mountain top, for a last general
calming, settling view.
Excerpts from John Muir's writings that head each page in this writing and sketching journal.
hardcover available
on Amazon.com
paperback available
on Amazon.com
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