Chera
Van Falcon Burg
Creative Work
Selected poems, books, and films
What We Know
My days are measured by light,
not time. No longer living
a life of rootless velocity
and mad harvesting, I am
a fallow field unfettered
by purpose except to find
those moments that stop
my breath with quiet beauty
barely sensed without
Walden-like stillness. My pond
is a neighborhood in winter
where I, the visitor,
wander empty streets between
shuttered houses sheltered in
solitude. Drifting over
wordless white fields, I sense
the dormant waiting beneath,
rooted in the wisdom
of darkness, trusting in death
and rebirth, knowing the soft
shoots of new life will
once again find the light. I trust
in this place, deeply listening
to the fervent bird
sing out its solitary song
knowing darkness will return
the light, and life reflect it.
published in Canary: A Literary Journal
of the Environmental Crisis :
https://canarylitmag.org/archive_by_author.php?id=672
Out of Thin Air
Signs come out of nowhere
like the small dark bird that fell
from the night sky onto the gray
stoop of my mother’s grieving
house, the heart-shaped fold of
its wings illuminated in the soft
porch light. Mourning husband,
father, grandfather, we gathered
around the mysterious shape,
holding its presence, circling
the tangle of feelings hardened
between us, unable to find
words through the language of
grief. Keeping vigil, we heard
its name sung out of thin air.
Catbird. Slowly, we began
to mimic each other’s voices,
not with words, but with song.
published in Eco-Theo Review:
Recent and Forthcoming poetry publications:
Last Rose is forthcoming in the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar, 2025
Song of Earth (I Contain Multitudes) is published in Moss Piglet
This Morning and What Came Before are published in the Peninsula Pulse
Where The House Had Been was a finalist for 2022 Hal Prize
What Was and What We Know were posted on the Poetry Trail at Newport State Park, Ellison Bay, WI
Top right photo of Chera in Rochester, NY taken by Karen Burns. Bottom left photo of Chera in Manchester, VT taken by Ian Murray.
What We Can See
Chera Van Falcon Burg's forthcoming book of poems, What We Can See, will be published by Four Windows Press. Poems in her book are primarily written in free verse and are mostly narrative or lyrical. Poems in the 1st section reference childhood trauma, the life we are born into, and healing found in nature. Poems in the 2nd section consider how we find other ways of knowing through the natural world and the life we create through self-agency. Poems in the 3rd section speak of disconnection with nature and its impact on our well-being and on the Earth. Poems in the 4th section explore grief as transformation and re-imagining. Poems in the final section consider how art, nature, and spirit allow us to re-conceptualize ways of seeing and being in the world and beyond.
Book cover photo of morning fog on Rich's Dugway Road in Ellison Park, Rochester, NY taken by Chera. Book cover design created by Chera and Four Windows Press.
Call Of Life is narrated by Peter Coyote and features scientists: Paul Ehrlich, Gretchen Daily, Peter Vitousek Norman Myers, Stuart Pimm, Richard Leaky, Tyrone Hayes, Ignacio Chapela, and others; psychologists: Alan Kanner and Mary Gomes; ecologists/philosophers: Derek Jensen, Joanna Macy, Bernard Zaleha, Mary Evelyn Tucker; and Native American scholars: Oren Lyons and Melissa K. Nelson
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Call Of LIfe is an award-winning film produced by Chera and co-written with the film's director, Monte Thompson. The film's website is: https://www.calloflife.org
The film was made through the non-profit organization, Species Alliance (speciesalliance.org), and is also distributed by The Video Project (videoproject.org/Call-of-Life-Facing-the-Mass-Extinction.html)
Left photo of DVD cover of Call Of Life was created by Species Alliance graphic artists. Right photo of Chera and Monte with cameraman and actor filming Call Of Life on Rodeo Beach in Marin County, CA taken by Susan Scott.
Living With Orioles:
Bird Wisdom
This book is a series of photographs taken by Chera of a pair of Hooded Orioles during the months of their mating and nesting season
in a huge California Palm next to her cottage, which was located in Marin County, CA. The book includes a narrative account of her experience with these wondrous birds and the wisdom they imparted to her during her time with them. The book was published in 2014 by Nature and Light Creations.
Book cover photo of orioles taken by Chera. Book cover design created by Chera.
