Lichen Literacy

Found: a rich substrate for poems. Turn to the "Reading the Lichen Thallus" page of the website, Enlichenment:

"Like any good book, a lichen thallus contains a wealth of information.
But first one has to learn to read."

Take some time to explore the entire site--it is really user friendly and welcoming to those who may not be familiar with the jargon of lichenology.

Trevor Goward, one of BC's premier lichenologists and a big fan of Jan Zwicky's philosophy toward metaphors (as well as a personal friend of Zwicky), has written a series of 10 essays that are extremely readable/understandable by the lay person. Important to our group of ecocriticism/place/culture graduate students (and our professor) is the following statement:

Lichens, [Goward] insists, have relevance far beyond their inherent interest as objects of scientific inquiry. Seen at sufficient distance, as metaphor, they become a central pillar in the new scientific, philosophic and artistic world view now emerging across an array of disciplines.

So check out lichens...

(photo of Hypogymnia tubulosa by Tim Wheeler from the Enlichenment website)