Petra Vergunst
BOOKS
Years later he would write
about the tent and thermos, map and mac
the camaraderie between young men
priming peat and scavenging screes
to revisit doubtful records from Victorian predecessors.
They had added their collection to the herbarium
the labels evidence of the endurance
exhibited when the ease of the city
ebbed beyond floods of midges
Once, when I spoke about the lichen knowers
living in crofts below bens
a knowing person replied she did not expect
there to be any lichenologists
in straths and glens. I offered her
another book, about women and men
who know not only
the paths to open local corries
but can tell about boulders as well
TEACHING
Again, we approach ash trees, their trunks
graced with crust-forming lichens
You will invite me to take out the knife
and sampling bag listed on the what-to-bring
and tell me crustose lichens can only be named
cut up under the eye of a microscope
But first you will emphasise the need to unlock
the lichen’s chemical door. You will hand me
your dropper with bleach
and help me to see rainbow changes
Quietly, I will build up lichen layers:
cortex, medulla, then the hyphae
in direct contact with bark. With my hand lens
I will watch lobes wrap around the twig.
Your teaching goes without saying
Years later he would write
about the tent and thermos, map and mac
the camaraderie between young men
priming peat and scavenging screes
to revisit doubtful records from Victorian predecessors.
They had added their collection to the herbarium
the labels evidence of the endurance
exhibited when the ease of the city
ebbed beyond floods of midges
Once, when I spoke about the lichen knowers
living in crofts below bens
a knowing person replied she did not expect
there to be any lichenologists
in straths and glens. I offered her
another book, about women and men
who know not only
the paths to open local corries
but can tell about boulders as well
TEACHING
Again, we approach ash trees, their trunks
graced with crust-forming lichens
You will invite me to take out the knife
and sampling bag listed on the what-to-bring
and tell me crustose lichens can only be named
cut up under the eye of a microscope
But first you will emphasise the need to unlock
the lichen’s chemical door. You will hand me
your dropper with bleach
and help me to see rainbow changes
Quietly, I will build up lichen layers:
cortex, medulla, then the hyphae
in direct contact with bark. With my hand lens
I will watch lobes wrap around the twig.
Your teaching goes without saying
© Copyright Petra Vergunst 2021
Petra Vergunst is an ecologist and writer whose work investigates the ways in which we know, and relate to, our natural environment. She currently takes inspiration from lichens found on walks around her home in Northeast Scotland
