First Steps: Poemwalking the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in the Northern Kettle Moraine

It is and it isn't a loop trail- / it can be if you want. / I choose the tower view of wind- / sculpted lake in gray marble, / splashes of vermilion on green / like the first raindrops of fall.

Weather breaks over couplets and gathers into fat stanzas as these poems travel Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail. The sound of vegetation, mold, and stones against stones under the soles of the speaker's boots is accomplished with musicality and the precise language Katrina Serwe selects as carefully as the next step on the trail.

This collection is both a travelogue and a record of one of our country's most fragile places, and is highly recommended to readers of nature poetry and prose seeking an immersive experience with an unusual place. Serwe has crafted a prestige guidebook from her remarkable poems.

First Steps was a 2024 selection of the Brain Mill Press + Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Contest.