Elizabeth Joy Levinson

I’ve been slowly piecing together a project about the wilderness of Chicago, both literally and figuratively.  Poems focus on wild animals in the city, the landscape of the city, and the hostility & beauty of the city.  Students often appear in these poems.  For me, they are the heroes in a man against urban-nature struggle.

Today’s zoo trip inspired a new poem to work with, about one girl’s interaction with a goose.   It wasn’t too long after we arrived, we had just started to split from the kids, leaving them to explore on their own, when this particular girl called out to her teacher, demanding the name of the big bird stretching its neck out to her.  It was surprising; the school I teach at is located near a large park where geese often visit & even stay a while, goslings waddling around in the spring.  How heartbreaking it is that a teenager wouldn’t know the name of a common animal in her neighborhood, let alone the difference between big cats or species of bears.