LESSONS IN GEOLOGY, NO. 2

Begin with granite, the deepest rock of which we have any knowledge, and then in the ascending order, meet only materials with which we are acquainted, and of which the derivative rocks are constructed.

__

LESSONS IN GEOLOGY, NO. 4

Begin with the cones of active and extinct volcanoes—descending through the igneous rocks to the granite, and then up as before to the surface, through "primary," "transition," "secondary" and "tertiary," ending then with the diluvial and alluvial.

__

A PARALLEL LESSON

Proceed also from animals and plants, the least known, or entirely unknown, through successive families more and more assimilated to those of our own times—ending with the species identical to those presently in existence.

__

Much of my writing is informed by scientific, historical, and educational texts, as i think of them as "antiquated" or possibly "forgotten" ways of understanding the world. These poems are reimagined understandings of geological lessons from the 1800's. Re-presented here, they delineate an understanding of the earth and "the unknown" at once—as well as the process of coming to an understanding of these things.

These poems are written after Dr. Gideon Mantell.