“Drift”

Susan April created “Drift” from Elementary Geology by Edward Hitchcock (1854 edition). Please click here to read.

About the poem and the process of composing it, Susan April writes:

This poem was sourced from the classic science textbook Hitchcock’s Elementary Geology, a text used by both Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson. My process involved a close reading of Section I, “A General Account of the Constitution and Structure of the Earth and of the Principles on Which Rocks are Classified,” and Section III, “Lithological Characters of the Stratified Rocks.” I made lists of key phrases and was struck by the sensual language that at times recalled a love letter or a forlorn postcard. “Drift” was created from such lifted phrases with linking words of my own.