The Poetry Slow Down with Professor Barbara Mossberg. In our show, broadcast live from Los Angeles, where John Muir died 103 years ago today, we consider his last words, sprawled as he lay in a hospital bed with the manuscript of Travels in Alaska. The book concludes extolling the beauty of aurora borealis, the Northern Lights, the most exalted he “has ever beheld. THE END.†At a time when the fates of the national parks and lands are uncertain, it is useful—and hopeful—to remember that John Muir’s heartache on his death, his mourning the drowning of Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley for San Francisco’s supplemental water and power source, did not stop him from writing to preserve wilderness that still remained. And the furor over Congress’ 1913 decision to drown a national park valley led to the 1916 National Park System legislation. John Muir wanted to be the poet to the rescue to save wilderness, and in a profound way, he has done just that over time. How? He is, at the end of the day, a poetry man. His death certificate lists his occupation as Geologist, but it is as a poet that he created earthquakes in the minds and hearts of the American public. Today, we celebrate his work, building on poets from thousands of years, to behold earth so that we value it and save it. Thank you for joining our Poetry Slow Down, with Producer Zappa Johns, live at our podcast, Barbaramossberg.com
© Barbara Mossberg 2017
