Becky Herbig has a lifelong interest in the relationship of the arts to the sciences. She began MHC life as an English major, but added Biology to design an interdisciplinary major focused on environmental writing. During an interdisciplinary environmental science career, Becky rediscovered an early interest in poetry. Since then she’s shared in and learned much from writing classes and writers’ groups. Becky published 2 poems in a cooperatively published chapbook, Bringing Poetry to Life and Life to Poetry: New Voices (2000) and a personal essay in The NF Journal (March/April 2000). Since attending the intensive Colrain Poetry Conference in 2009, she is currently developing a chapbook manuscript from 20 years of writing poetry.

Sugaring, 1961
After nightfall of frozen stars,
sap drips, uncongealing
from many spigots
hammered into heartwood.

The clear sap oozes
into pewter pails under tin roofs.
We dip finger to mouth,
sugar on scooped snow amid
sticky-sweet smoke curled in March air,
up from the evaporator
boiling over the firepit.

Among spring-brown pock-marks,
the cat tractor growls among leafless silvery trees
in the sugarbush under a slow-warming sun.

Watch Face
my red sweep hand hurries
up to catch its shadow
second by second
leading at 9
behind by 3
this is how I spend
my most precious asset