Description
We are the Machine
We are the Rust.
We are the Empire
and the Heart that Composts Empires.
Release:
late summer 2026
Early preorders help nourish the wider Thrum ecosystem as it emerges
so thick is the hope in us
we sprout sunflowers from the soil
of rotting prisons
Becoming Beautiful Barbarians is the fire/imaginal morph within the THRUM ecology:
a living literary organism weaving re-enchantment, ecological belonging,
grief, and emergence in the threshold between collapse and becoming.
Enter the wider Thrum field
Ryan Van Lenning is a threshold guide, ecotherapist, wilderness rite-of-passage guide, and barbarian poet of the Great Turning. His work tends the crossings between ecological grief, re-enchantment, animist belonging, and cultural composting. He lives among forest and rivers in northern California, on ancestral Wiyot and Yurok land, where he continues listening for the poems trying to sprout through the cracks. Author of several collections of poetry, including One Bright and Real Caress, Lend Your Tears Back to the Watershed, Riverever, Within the Cave Something Pulses, and Trust the Ceremony, F*ck the Ceremony, and Trust the Ceremony.
He lives among forest and rivers in northern California, on ancestral Wiyot and Yurok land. He likes cinnamon ice cream, fantastic fungi, and river ottering.
More about Ryan and Wild Nature Heart.
Praise for Ryan’s poetry:
“Bless Ryan Van Lenning for listening to the wild voices and bringing back the news for those who have lost their way. Bless him for reminding us of our original love affair with the earth and of what we know deep in our souls. His poems give wise counsel: let go of the debris, remember who you are, do not abandon your luminous thread.” —Lorraine Anderson, editor of Sisters of the Earth and Earth & Eros “Ryan’s poetry speaks deeply and clearly to the awakening to our true interconnected nature, which is the only way we can transform our world.” –Molly Young Brown, Author of Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects (co-authored with Joanna Macy), Editor of Deep Times: A Journal of the Work That Reconnects
“Ryan’s poetry sprouts out of him from moist, fertile soil – painting a lush landscape of sensual and philosophical magic. His poems transport you to a way of living in relationship with the earth that is lovingly intimate. Ryan integrates body, spirit, and social commentary into a vision of how to live a nature-inspired life amidst noise and overrun technology. ” Ariana Candell, LMFT, Founder of The Earthbody Institute
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