ELIZABETH BERNAYS
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ESSAYS

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NEW!
Linda’s Field Trip. Umbrella Factory Magazine No.46, pp37-51.

Excerpts

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From West Shed
I listen at my desk.
Wild branches beat on my window
Their oak and ash cantatas 
Their sun leafy waltzes.  Wind.
Symphony of my head come to me here
Come quickly and fill my fingers with
Music on the silver keys. Was it 
The wind in the trees outside
Or did you say something?

From Thoughts in the Woods
In the dark deciduous woods of an Appalachian summer I am wrapped around with trees and their tapestries of green leaves.  The air is completely still, and leaves fall noiselessly onto the bed of soft brown litter.

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Bootettix grasshopper on creosote bush
From Creosote
All those past times of grasshopper study rush before my eyes when I touch the plant, and I relive the sense of sweaty heat, the potent plant smell, and the calm of togetherness.  I don’t remember our conversations.  I remember the silences, the communication that floats noiselessly from one person to another, the sudden flashes of realization that we shared, and the collective joy of discovery.

From Pond
The new trail camera photo showed the back view of a hog-nosed skunk on the black, icy pond, its tall, airy tail hiding the rest of its body, the round patch of skin of its anus highlighted in the flash. "A great shot of his asshole," Sam said. I smiled, knowing that the placid picture hid the fact that the skunk would have been slipping on the ice.
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PUBLISHED ESSAY LIST

 
Breakfast Served All day. In: California Monthly    February 2003
The Man from Hunter Brothers. In: The Fossil Record Fall 2003 on the WEB, 2004 print version 
Variety and Black Grasshoppers. In: Blessed Pests of the Beloved West: an Affectionate Collection on Insects and Their   Kin Eds. Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb and Terril L. Shorb. Native West Press 2004
Jaws. In: Snowy Egret Spring 2005 pp9-13
West Shed. In: Noneuclidean Café June 2006 
Sierra Interlude. In: Summerset Review June 2006
Love in the Motor Home.  In: Conte vol 2 issue 3 "Between Seasons” Aug 2006
Desert Time In: Eclectica Fall 2006
Indian Pastiche. In: Driftwood I.iii 23-37 2007
Flying with Lepidoptera. In: Rosebud Magazine 39  Aug 2007
Home Thoughts on a Picture. In: Antipodes Dec 2007
Canals and a Solex. In: Stone Table Review vol. 2, 2007
Arthropods Molt. In: Fence 2007
The Long View.  In: Shine 2009
Strawberry Summer. In: SNReview winter 2008
Motherhood.  In: The Day After Tomorrow. Book Ed. Valerie Wallace
Poppies. In: Segue August 2008
A Walk at Linantour Beach. In: Sylvan Echo July 2008
A Game of Cricket.  In: Antipodes  Dec 2008
Yellow. In: Copper Nickel 10, Oct 2008
The Hawk Moth’s Progeny. In: Snowy Egret 2009
A Beach at Point Reyes. In: Sea Stories August 2008
Of Moisture and Moss. In: - Andrews Forest Spring Creek Project, 2008 
Aluminum Reflections. In: Transitions Abroad: TAzine Feb 2009
Elegy for Yellow. In: When Last on the Mountain: The View from Writers Over Fifty. Anthology, eds Carol Roan and Vicky           Lettmann. Holy Cow Press 2010
Invasion of Iraq  In: Relationships and Other Stuff, Volume 2. Anthology, Ed Natasha Brooks, Emerging Edge Publishing  2010
At the Cannery.  In: Sylvan Echo 2010
Bugs. In: Umbrella Factory 2010
Your Brain Knows More Than You Do. In: Prime Number Magazine, no.3  2010
Passage to Patancheru.  In: Mambo Poa: Mikel Essery Anthology of Travel Writing 2010
Time in the Mesquites  In: Superstition Review Issue 6. 2010
Creosote.  In: Snowy Egret 2011 
Learning with Pollards.  In: Shifting Balance Sheets,  Anthology, pp 214-222. Eds H.Tosteson and C. Brockett, Wising Up Press, 2011
Plastic Cups in Arizona. In: Mary Magazine  summer 2011
Prickly Pear Conversation. In: Antipodes 2012
Motherhood. In: The Day After Tomorrow  Anthology, Ed. Valerie Wallace 
Pond.  In: Superstition Review  Issue 9 Spring 2012
Caterpillar Story. In: Sugar Mule, Women Writing Nature special edition, 41, 60-68 2012.
The Other Patagonia.  In: Natural History  2012
Rambling into Hungary.  In: Drafthorse, Summer, 2013
Music for Mama. In: Aspiring to Inspire, Anthology of Women Writers. Eds P. Durham and A. Durham, Durham Publishers  pp152-169, 1914
Those Clever Grasshoppers. In: Aspiring to Inspire,  Anthology of Women Writers. Eds P. Durham and A. Durham,  Durham Publishers pp70-75, 1914
An Unlikely Beginning: a Fortunate Life. In: Annual Review of Entomology, Vol. 64, Jan 2019
A Sahara Camp. In: Zoomorphic, Issue 10 September 2018.
In Praise of Looking. In: American Entomologist, Volume 66, Issue 1, Spring 2020, Pages 28–29
Linda’s Field Trip. In: Umbrella Factory Magazine No.46, pp37-51. December 2020
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Longhorn beetle.
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Western horse lubber grasshopper.
Copyright Elizabeth Bernays. All rights reserved. Photography by Elizabeth Bernays unless noted.
Web design: Cara Gibson.
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