Buckskin Larch and Bedrock

YAKIMA, Wash. — I’d never heard the term buckskin larch until a couple of weeks ago, when I saw it on the cover of a small book written by a guy named Mike Hiler — who I’ve known for about 10 years and find to be a soft-spoken, thoughtful man who is quietly fascinated by the great outdoors and picked a great career (with the Forest Service, from which he is now retired) in which to enjoy it.

“Buckskin Larch and Bedrock” is what Hiler chose to title a book of poetic observations of those aspects of the outdoors that strike him. I say “poetic observations” because if I call it poetry I will turn off those people who think, “Poetry, yucchy.” I will also turn off myself, because although poetry doesn’t quite induce yucchyocity in me, the mere thought of it does make my eyes glaze over. I dismiss it even without intending to, and I know I should not: I understand how hard poetry is to do well, and how every word and phrase must be carefully selected because, let’s face it, poetry is a short form. And some of the best writers I know are poets, at least some of the time.

All of that notwithstanding, I have to say I have no patience for poetry. So I haven’t read any of Hiler’s five small-press poetry books, and probably won’t.

Poetic observations of things I’m interested in, on the other hand, that’s something else altogether. And observations from a career spent largely outdoors are what drive Hiler’s book, published by Yakima’s Cave Moon Press.

For the record, buckskin larch is a larch snag, now without bark and silvered with age. I didn’t know that. It’s in one of the many footnotes peppered throughout Hiler’s book. What’s that, a poetry book with footnotes? Well, yeah. Consider it a natural history book in short form, with footnotes. Unlike those poets who don’t really care if their work is intellectually accessible or even remotely understood, Hiler seems to want to share his observations in a way that make you go, “Oh … yeah. I think I’ve seen that before and never really noticed it. Whataya know.”

I was talking to Hiler about “Buckskin Larch” and we got to talking about the footnotes. He told me, “If someone said to me, ‘Hey, Mike, I only have 10 minutes, I don’t have time to read the whole book,’ I’d tell them, ‘Well, just read the footnotes.’ ”

And those footnotes are a study in local history.

I’m not from this part of the country, having only lived in the Yakima Valley for the last 10 years. But if I met a newcomer wanting to get the historical and natural feel of this area, I’d suggest that person read “Of Men and Mountains” by William O. Douglas and “Around the Bend” by Gretta Gossett (if you could find one; it’s out of print and copies of that 1979 book are like historical gold). And, just maybe, I might now add “Buckskin Larch and Bedrock.”

“Buckskin” is available at Inklings, at the Yakima Valley Museum gift shop and online from Amazon. A dollar from the sale of every book goes to the museum.

– Scott Sandsberry