First Steps: Poemwalking the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in the Northern Kettle Moraine

It is and it isn't a loop trail- / it can be if you want. / I choose the tower view of wind- / sculpted lake in gray marble, / splashes of vermilion on green / like the first raindrops of fall.

Weather breaks over couplets and gathers into fat stanzas as these poems travel Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail. The sound of vegetation, mold, and stones against stones under the soles of the speaker's boots is accomplished with musicality and the precise language Katrina Serwe selects as carefully as the next step on the trail.

This collection is both a travelogue and a record of one of our country's most fragile places, and is highly recommended to readers of nature poetry and prose seeking an immersive experience with an unusual place. Serwe has crafted a prestige guidebook from her remarkable poems.

First Steps was a 2024 selection of the Brain Mill Press + Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook Contest.

Katrina Serwe, PhD, worked as a therapist, professor, and researcher in the field of occupational therapy for over two decades. She started writing poetry after a transcendent midlife crisis brought her back to her love of literature, art, and nature. Her poems have been featured in a variety of publications such as The Solitary Plover, Blue Heron Review, Bramble, Portage Magazine, and Scrawl Place. Serwe was the first-place winner of the 2024 Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring contest for poetry. Her current project is foraging poems on Wisconsin's Ice Age National Scenic trail. You can follow her journey at www.katrinaserwe.com.