Description

 

There Is Always a Volcano Before You
Poems for Mount St. Helens and the Cascade Range

 

by Christine Colasurdo

In this posthumously published collection of poems by beloved poet, Christine Colasurdo, the reader is invited to share in her treasured memories of growing up in the 70s spending summers at Spirit Lake on the north side of Mount St. Helens, as well as the year she spent working at Harmony Falls Lodge. Through the lens of Colasurdo’s poetry, you will also relive the volcano eruption on May 18, 1980, followed by the continued regeneration of this special place. There Is Always a Volcano Before You is a lasting gift left by this poet for anyone who loves the Cascade Range as much as she did.

Early Praise

“This book is a treasure! Christine’s keen observational powers and understanding of nature give us rich glimpses of volcanic beauty and wonder. While there is loss, there is resilience, and renewal.”

—Marcy Cottrell Houle, wildlife biologist, author of Wing for My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock.

“Early in this book you will come to the word ‘immersed,’ but by then you will already be deep in a time when Christine was alive and the mountain was yet pristine, where places were named ‘harmony’ and ‘spirit’ because the place was poetry. In this book, Christine’s voice lets light pass frictionless from that realm of the magical real to you, to immerse you in it, to gift you with it, to let you in. The poems in this book live as Christine lived, savoring history, natural history, memory, sensation in place, and a grace-filled singing imagination to knit all these to the page.”

—Kim Stafford, author of As the Sky Begins to Change

“There is Always a Volcano Before You  captures the presence of Loowitlatkla as she has never been portrayed before. Each poem is an original encomium to the mountain Christine knew and loved and never stopped loving. ‘The past is a pocketful of pumice/ I have tried to piece together,’ she writes. And my, how she has succeeded! If you thought you knew Mt. St. Helens, or never did, seek here to find her—you need look no farther.”

—Robert Michael Pyle, author of Chinook & Chanterelle and The Last Man in Willapa

“Christine understood the conflicting intricacies of Mount St. Helens and worked to bridge the gulf between pre- and post-1980 for those of us who didn’t experience the change firsthand. She put words to my feelings and experiences at Mount St. Helens.” 

—Ray Yurkewycz, Executive Director, Mount St Helens Institute 2014-2024

“Christine’s writing is a gift to us all, splendidly painting the cherished pre-eruption landscape of Mount St. Helens and reawakening a magical place remembered through her living legacy. Weaving together science, days of youthful adventure, and discoveries throughout her adulthood- her poetry pulls on your emotions and sparks curiosity, beckoning you to visit. Her work is a genuine privilege to read, an essential resource within our small community, so even those of us born after the eruption never forget the good old days.”

—Alysa Adams, Washington State Parks, Mount St. Helens Visitor Center

“In the wake of great loss Christine saw genesis and rebirth. Her poetry guides us through those dark ashes back into the light, weaving a common and luminous thread throughout nature’s extraordinary creations. Her writings and artwork speak to us from a higher place.”

—Laura J. (Berry ) Bernard, Harmony Falls Lodge Inn Keeper, 1974 -1980

 

About the Author

Christine Colasurdo lived at Spirit Lake before the eruption at Mt. St. Helens. She is the author of Return to Spirit: Life and Landscape at Mount St. Helens, The Golden Gate Parks: a photographic journey, and poetry chapbooks Rain and Cascade Manifesto. She taught writing and calligraphy at Multnomah Art Center in Portland, Oregon. She was a founding member of The Mt. St. Helens Institute. Her poems have appeared in Terrain.org, Windfall, OnEarth, Verseweavers, Medical Literary Messenger, The University of Portland Magazine and Denver Quarterly Review among others. Christine was also a visual artist and calligrapher. She died in 2021 at the age of 59. See more of her work at christinecolasurdo.com.