The Hopes of Snakes & Other Tales from the Urban Landscape by Lisa Couturier
Beacon Press, Boston, 2005
Borrowed from my public library.
This is one of those books I discovered while browsing the shelves. This collection of essays written about Couturier’s time spent in New York City and the Washington, DC area, reminds me that the city is, in fact, part of nature and that our ideas of nature are human constructs. I know this, but it is easy to forget in my day-to-day living.
In essays that range from searching for Canada goose nests on an island in the Arthur Kill to hunting for Coyotes along the Potomac River through Washington D.C., Couturier drew me into her world and reintroduced me to the snakes and crows and foxes that live beside us in our urban habitats.
Her words convey deep respect for the “natural” world, they are filled with hard truths about human behavior. I found these essays speaking to me, summing up my spiritual philosophy, my personal religion. I loved this wonderful collection.
What if God is the hawk, is the fish in the ocean, the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth? What if God is the grass the hawk sat in and the breeze the hawk flew through? from page 17.
This sounds like a really good book – it sort of sounds like a book I just finished called Central Park in the Dark by Marie Winn – I highly recommend it!
I’ve added the Marie Winn book to my library book list. Thanks for the tip!