Wallace Kaufman

Wallace Kaufman Poems

CAROLINA WREN

Where this time?
The pair makes several tries-
...

LEARNING TO SPEAK: Chukotka 1989
(for my friends in the US0SU Expedition)

Last year when it was over,
...

CHILDREN TAKE ALL

Children take all. They give none.
Who are we to ask daughter or son
...

FIRES OF FRIENDSHIP
For Diana Coogle, Surrounded by fires in the Siskyous, Sept.2017

The mindless fires raging in the hills
...

STARDOM
Blind has the blazing cosmos
been for 15 billion years;
blind too evolution's bacterial
...

Wallace Kaufman Biography

Wallace Kaufman’s writing in many forms is enriched by the variety of his work in the US, Europe, Central Asia and Siberia. After graduate work as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, he taught at major universities, created numerous homestead communities with unique environmental covenants, served in Kazakhstan as resident adviser on housing and land reform, and continues to work as a conflict mediator. He lives on Oregon’s central coast in a house he built at the edge of a forest overlooking a deep water slough and its broad marshes. His book publication began with The Beaches Are Moving, a natural and human history of America’s beaches that has had an important impact on coastal planning. Coming out of the Woods Perseus Publishing,2001 is the narrative of his efforts to combine homestead development with environmental conservation as he brings up his daughter and builds his own home in the forest. The Hunt for FOXP5 Springer 2016 explores through science fiction the ethical issues gene editing. Kaufman co-authored the novel with David Deamer, astrobiologist and co-inventor of the nanopore genome sequencing process. With his daughter, Dr. Sylvan Kaufman, he is co-author of Invasive Plants. Stackpole,2nd edition 2012 In addition to other books, Kaufman has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines that include Audubon, National Wildlife, Omni, Orion, American Forests, and American Health. He has also been a Science Writing Fellow at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.)

The Best Poem Of Wallace Kaufman

Carolina Wren

CAROLINA WREN

Where this time?
The pair makes several tries-
my hard hat, a can of nails, window ledge
all filled with leaves.
How do they judge
those inferior, this one prime?
It's predetermined,
I don't know how.
So too their songs-
he two-notes or three-notes,
and she chirrrs along.
Same songs, same positions,
morning in and morning out.
I wake to their repetition.
If they watch me, no doubt
they'd see my own routines,
but neither they nor I can find
what isn't wired in my genes.
Why does this human mind
hear Figaro, Figaro, Figaro
in his operatic voice?
Or is it video, video, video?
It's his song, but my choice.

Wallace Kaufman Comments

Wallace Kaufman Quotes

"Humankind has mastered most of the powers of the natural world. This new pandemic makes clear that bio-engineered weapons can create more economic and social havoc and death than any other weapon, and that created viruses can be spread faster and farther with less effort than other weapons. Our powers are now god-like for both creation and destruction. We have met the Titans and they are us."

One of the marvels of human psychology is that the people who are thoroughly pessimistic about humankind want to solve our problems by trusting their solution to a very small number of small minds.

Life is a deadly game presently being played with 7 billion people on one side and death on the other.

Civilization is a creative writing course. Some people will kill to defend their stories.

There is no such thing as a hydroponic human. Every human who eats, kills. Some prefer to kill only peace loving plants while others get their plant nourishment second hand by killing animals. In fact, few meat eaters kill what they eat. Meat eater is just a fancy word for scavenger.

Movie theaters change shows every three or four days or a week. Poole Slough, like many places, where tall buildings don't sit between you and the view of nature, changes shows sometimes in minutes, but at least two or three times a day. Although I have yet to grasp the plot of this endless series, it does not have commercials and it does not stop for summer break. I appreciate the privilege of being usually an audience of one.

Wallace Kaufman Popularity

Wallace Kaufman Popularity

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