Today’s news around the country is heavy on my heart and mind as I sit down to write, so I am just going to stare at this face. Be well.

Last week, this adult monk seal died. A female. She was 14, in the prime of her life, and a really really good mother. She’d pupped the past seven years in a row, producing healthy seals, six of which are still alive today. I’ve witnessed many deaths of Hawaiian monk seals over the dozen years…

In Jane Hirshfield’s poem, “Some questions,” she asks: Will you miss them \ the cruelty and hunger \ the manatees and spoonbills. I focused on the manatees and spoonbills. They draw huge crowds year over year in Florida the way albatross and humpback whales draw people to Hawaii. Like sandhill cranes to Nebraska. Grizzly bears…