Symbolic Scribbles Series Sunday Edition [27 April 2025]
An ongoing poetic conversation chain with SylviA 🌞 KalinA and Jeremy Nathan Marks
Sunday Editions are ongoing poetic conversations between
S y l v i A 🌞 K a l i n A and Jeremy Marks
We hope you enjoy this series and invite you to participate in the weekly series publication chain.
Last Sunday’s Edition can be found HERE
We start back today with and The Reply by
Image: Mead Wildlife Area sign and Wisconsin Conservation Department administrators; Reese, Staber W August 1959
Mead Refuge —
Laurentide ice sheet glaciation Meltwater carved basin formations —All points of Mead origination Sediment blanket, outwash plains Wetland, drumlin, kettle, moraine Unintentional rhymes of land’s creation Establishing deposition Dual nature land depression The land always was and will forever remain Long after humans impose their reign, such Meager forces inflicting change Europeans forced desecration Natives resisted as a unified nation The land cried, her body maimed How dare we humans suppose suppositional Land drained for agricultural profit —Earth stood steadfast Stubborn soil banishing dreams —Earth stood steadfast Refuge born, conservational hand The Mead, a gift, a returning of home Varied wetland restoration Hardwood and aspen forestation Migratory diversification Abundant wildlife populations Human arrogance wounds eternally Intricate imbalances disrupted unlearnedly Lessons in nature’s own stratification Requires of humans much deeper transformations If being is belonging what separates our spirit from the soul? Perhaps the answers breathe within the wild's reclamations. —sylvia ©2025 SylviA 🌞 KalinA
[The Reply]
image Jeremy Nathan Marks
City of Needles —
I cannot walk the park and miss its crop of needles. I cannot reach for fish behind glass without scales impaling my wrists. Those trees I admired, the ones syringe-like in winter. Yes, needles. When I pick up refuse, I wear impermeable gloves. When I trim, my blades dull on spiny metals. I removed a pin from a red bird’s wing, a bird not originally red. Towers rain showers of powder. There is snow on the grass in May. A child was taken to the infirmary having tried to taste falling flakes. So many luxury cars with tires that never wear flat. So many heals and ankles reinforced with steel. And iron. The iron red of a woman’s lips; the iron red under a man’s eyes. Iron red foliage on a maple in the park. Today, I received a contact high when I admired a spruce. The tree had ankles reinforced with steel. The mayor is calm. He says we’re getting along. Workers work longer shifts, allowed to collect time and a half. There is a rust iron redness in their spines. There is a rust from the grindstone on their shoulders. The plows come out in May and remove all the flowers. The operators see stars. A kinglet is crowned monarch. Somehow, so many can pay the inflated rent. People watch films while cyber trucks drive them to work. ©2025 Jeremy Nathan Marks
Remember the joy of receiving a handwritten note or letter? 'Symbolic Scribbles Series' rekindles that magic, creating a space for poetic symbolic 'scribbles' where meaning hides in metaphors and symbols, waiting to be discovered. Each poem builds upon the last, like a literary game of telephone, where interpretations can twist and turn in unexpected ways.
Guidelines: Poems should be at least 60 words and use rich symbolism and metaphor
To join the letter chain, send your symbolic scribble to the most recent featured poem by emailing sylviakalina8@gmail.com or messaging
S y l v i A 🌞 K a l i n A
New series will be released 3-4 times a week, so subscribe to stay connected! We look forward to building a publication that transcends distance and bridges it with fun and inspiring poetic scribbles.
The beauty of this publication has really been unfolding, changing and shaping as we see where the symbolic translations of one takes the mind of another.
Sincere thanks for reading!
 | A guest post by
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Consequences of land plunder!
Mead a gold elixir, brew of Vikings and made from honey nectar, apples, perhaps, grapes fermented to give you warmth during cold winter Solstice nights. Just a foot note. A toe in the pool to test the temperature before a swim.