Tanya Rucosky Noakes was born in the mountains east of Pittsburgh. She has degrees from the University of Pittsburgh in English Literature and Information Science, and a further degree in Environmental Education from Slippery Rock University. She has worked as an archivist, editor, organic farmer, teacher, UN representative, and park ranger, and has wandered around Europe, the American West, and spent several years in Thailand and Taiwan. Currently she has wandered over to the other side of the planet where she owns an organic farm and runs a community environmental organization in rural Australia.

Some poetry on the web:

"Don’t Get Too Comfortable"
"Thaw"

Considering Laetoli
Temporary Vandalism (2006)
TVREC 041    44 pages.
$6.00 postage paid.
 

The Uncoupling

There is something strange in our house—
something sly, quick and stoat-like,
beads of blood trembling from its whiskers,
stalking us down in the kitchen,
bending us—
twisting us around
into something we were not once—
into something we don’t want to be.

                            previously published in The Sows-Ear.

How to Ride a Harley

Be a sack of potatoes.
Laws of gravity and centrifuge
operate perfectly well
whether you stand on the pegs grabbing
or cringe with whimpers and cries.
Across the sweet grass, warm air of twilight
with night hawks hard on the wing,
over hay and cow dung-scented fields,
under unexpected husbands,
through unplanned pregnancies—
Be a sack of potatoes.
Fall into the curves.