Stone Circle Press - Pegi Eyers ► Ecopoetics

Wintering

1/26/2025

PEGI EYERS

This image captures the shifting and ever-changing winter landscape at the foot of the hill, just below my home at Stone Circle Farm. There is an ancient quality to the land and sky. It is overcast and dark, shadows play on the snow and water, and every now and then, the clouds lighten and the sun breaks through. Depending on the temperature, the water stays in the riverbed, or runs off through the fields. Layers of snow and ice muffle the sounds on the land, and the quiet of winter is the best time for rest and rejuvenation. The land is at peace (!) and for that I am filled with gratitude and inspiration.
#otonabeewatershed #canadianidyll

Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores social justice, nature spirituality, the ancestral arts, and resilience in times of massive change.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon.

Earthly Delights

7/17/2024

Pegi Eyers & Robert Hood

When the oil wells are capped
When the pesticides stop falling
When the windmills stop turning
When the chem trails cease to drift

When the guns fall silent
When the voices stop arguing
When the glass towers are encrusted with moss
When the beacons go dark

After biohazards have reigned supreme

Then maybe, just maybe,
The birds will return
And flourish.

detail, "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
by Hieronymus Bosch

Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising:
Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community"
an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural
competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon.

Fireflies in the Storm

6/14/2024

PEGI EYERS

"Fireflies in the Storm"
Salt Fork State Park, Ohio - Photo © Steven Smith

I am so grateful for the beauty and mystery of the living world tonight~! After emergency preparedness in the face of dangerous thunderstorm and tornado warnings with 100 km winds ("this is a potentially life-threatening situation - tornado watch issued for Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes") darkness fell and the massive storm finally arrived. But the wind died down, the trees relaxed, and everything went perfectly still. Into that crucible of moist humid air came a beautiful soft cleansing rain, and so much ozone it perfumed the entire landscape all the way to the river. Then, as the sky got blacker still and thunder rolled non-stop behind the high-moving clouds, I witnessed the magic of a primordial lightshow, with lightning in sheets and jagged spider patterns, and erupting balls of blue light. I could feel the elementals moving about the sky and the land piercing my bones, and then all of a sudden I noticed that hundreds of fireflies were animating the meadows and hedgerows. How did I wait out the storm? How did my terror turn to bliss? I spent a magic hour following the pulsing fireflies from field to field, with enough joy to fill a thousand summers.

Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising:
Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community"
an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural
competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon.

Fall Equinox

9/30/2023

PEGI EYERS

bright glow
soft petal
leaves caress
shadowplay

all blessings of the wild garden

green blessings
sun blessings
blessings of the equinox light

NATURE IS DIVINE

Wild Garden, Stone Circle Farm, Otonabee Watershed

Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising:
Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community"
an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural
competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Stone Circle Press

Little Wing

4/16/2023

PEGI EYERS

the peace of a soft spring day
fields warming, seeds sprouting
buds unfurling, eggs hatching

winter’s patience manifesting
~ the work of the green fuse

it’s Sunday – no machines rumble
to break the timeless illusion

the deep peace of farmland
random bird song
rising
to a serene blue sky

outside my window - a wing flutters
the sweetest sound in the world

textile design by Penfia Rodrigues

Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising:
Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community"
an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural
competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Stone Circle Press

Similkameen

11/29/2021

PEGI EYERS

"Spirit of the Flood" mixed-media by Pegi Eyers

Do not take a mountain for granted.

For centuries on end
it seems like the most solid thing in the world
a lodestone, a presence, a beloved companion.

Until the day
certain humans
decide to rip a hole in creation.

Fossil fueled,
deforested,
industrial,
ecocidal,
technocrat,
capitalist.

Spewing enough poison
to actually terraform reality.

- EARTH -

Our home, our foundation
the essence of life itself.

up in smoke
underwater
forests crashing
species dying
radiation killing
rivers rising
drought spreading
heat ascending
cyclones raging
mud sliding
mountains shifting

Do not take the evil in certain humans for granted.

Save The Sacred
while you still can.

Flooding of the Similkameen Valley from an "atmospheric river" November 2021

Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising:
Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community"
an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural
competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Stone Circle Press

Walking the Land ~ Chant #1

4/21/2021

Pegi Eyers

This chant holds the tension, or unresolved paradox, of loving the Earth with one's entire heart and soul, and yet still being a Settler on Indigenous lands. In 2018 the Williams Treaties First Nations and the Ontario and Canadian governments came to an agreement, settling the litigation started in 2012.

I am an ecocultural weaver
Of the old and the new,
Senistrognata in the blood
Nogojiwanong sings to the soul.

I am a creature of Earth
I belong to Her only.
I am a creature of Earth
I belong to Her whole-y.

I have given my heart to the Earth,
She holds the warp and weft of me.

Walking these hills
I meet leaf, rune and stone
Weaving over and under
In, out and through -
Stories in feather and ice.

I have given my heart to the Earth,
She holds the warp and weft of me.

I am a creature of Earth
I belong to her only.
I am a creature of Earth.
I belong to her whole-y.

I am an ecocultural weaver
Of the old and the new,
Senistrognata in the blood
Nogojiwanong sings to the soul.

Pegi Eyers at Stone Circle Farm, April 2021, Otonabee Watershed

Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies
for social justice, ethnocultural identity, the ancestral arts, building land-
emergent community and resilience in times of massive change.

Encounter at Dusk

2/21/2021

PEGI EYERS

Walking a forest border at dusk, the sweet and verdant air tastes of deep leafy green, the ruffled and angled clouds are an exultant magenta in the darkening sky, black crows in community soar high over the peninsula to night-time nesting, smaller birds dive in arcs and songlines of chime and whistle, a mosquito bites, and I am blessed to encounter a mother deer and her fawn. I speak in human tones of love, she listens, she wiggles her ears and tail, she relaxes, her sweet baby is unconcerned. I watch, we wait, I walk away, the forest retains its mystery still. Night falls, the Great Heart is vibrant in miracles, here - the green world flourishing.

02/21/2021

Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies
for social justice, ethnocultural identity, the ancestral arts, building land-
emergent community and resilience in times of massive change.

Treelines

11/22/2020

PEGI EYERS

ONE

follow the river's edge
careful - rushing waters
discovery
sacred grove of cedar

past thickets and vines
saplings mark the way
dead end
how to find the circle?

tangled boundaries
forest floor is glowing
crawling in - I find the center
of wonder

looking up
etched branches reach skyward
sacred dome, a pause
there it is

the silence of the world

05/14/2019

"Sacred Cedars" painting © Cedar Lee

TWO

deadfall and wild grapevine
pushing down,
young trees pinned,
life force constricted

with saw and snips
I remove the bonds
limbs and buds fly free
saplings spring back,
face skyward

human in service to tree,
all beings have a place in the forest

05/10/2019

Photo Art © Ghanshyam Savani

THREE

the path I take
winds left and right
down the hill
through the thicket
out of sight
across the glade

bathed in moonlight
stark shadows appear
serrated, razor-sharp

the treeline is summoning

no fear
there are few dangers in the forest

into the comforting darkness
I fall

05/18/2019

photography by Robert Hood

FOUR

Beloved Ironwood
I pass by
morning, noon and night

branches a breathtaking symmetry
rolling farmland
beauty calls out

Her perfect presence stops time
fibonacci sequence

so close to home
a snapshot in the moment
extra water in times of drought

all trees are flawless
but this companion
especially so ~
She whispers to me
reciprocity, devotion

like a hand flung up
to touch the heavens

05/13/2019

FIVE

water flows and ripples
dense shade above
cool stream below
tall and slim - foundation species

iconic Eastern Hemlock
influencing the Circle of All Life

deeply furrowed trunk
reddish hues
holding snowmelt into spring
surrounded by younger siblings

beauty resides
deep in Burnham Woods

Great Mother Tree
a seedling in 1600
She spans centuries,
a monumental being

Her motherline -
now faded to rich loam
generations of hope
cycling through time

05/15/2019

Eastern Hemlock - Ontario’s Forest Cathedrals

SIX

shiny and new
tiny pine seedlings
in the tray
warm and well-lit

the tree-planter's gift
firm but gentle
a soft touch
easy landing on Mother Earth

set out to thrive
essence of loam
rows in the sun
wind and rain just right

from seedling to giant
you rise to the sky

05/09/2019

SEVEN

wind and rain
wind and rain
wind and rain

it's gone on for weeks
I've lost count
your leaves are frayed
your bark is bruised

branches hit the ground
wind and rain
wind and rain

it's gone on for weeks
please stop
it's hard to breathe

stand tall, my rooted kin
weaving blessings in the forest

05/09/2019

© Keith Dotson Photography

intelligent trees
sentient beings
are fighting to survive

06/13/2019

Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies
for social justice, ethnocultural identity, the ancestral arts, building land-
emergent community and resilience in times of massive change.

The City is the Backdrop to the Wild

11/17/2020

PEGI EYERS

Inner city trails
Rustlings at the fence-line
I see you
Dashes of fur, cottontail poised
Human voice soft and low
No danger
Rewilding in corner lots
Boulders of the Canadian Shield
Marking grids
Subdivisions long forgotten
Fox pair nesting in the long grass
Red Cardinal glides
Like a leaf in autumn

🍂

Paths and tracks
In the urban jungle
I see you
Squirrel through the slats
Vines winding round the gate
Closed for countless seasons
How many sunsets have you seen?
Grandmother Tree
At least 250 years of wisdom
You are visible from space
The original cathedral
The Sacred
Right beside the mall

🍂

Sweet warm autumn in the city
The trail beckons
I see you
Winding past civic markers
Sirens blaring
Freeways humming
All is still
In the urban forest
Soft songs waiting
Voices of plants and trees
The creatures the elements
Finding harmony
In a lost world

🍂
Trans-Canada Trail through Peterborough, Ontario
Hike November 5, 2020

"Foxes" painting by Elisabeth Handelsby

Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies
for social justice, ethnocultural identity, the ancestral arts, building land-
emergent community and resilience in times of massive change.