Alphabet of Bones is a collection of poems born out of the poet's long engagement with the natural world- as gardener, shepherd, activist, and as a mortal human being whose bones will one day return to dust. Set in the context of unprecedented violence against nature - as living cultures are reduced to archeology- these are poems that take the long view, insisting on a deep ecological memory, as well as an awareness that our stories will ultimately be told through the landscapes we leave behind. From the pastoral landscape to the arctic tundra, these poems trace the poet's discovery of the luminous in the shadows of loss. "We must leave a message," the poet asks. "But in what language will we speak?"