The Lines That Connect Us

About the Book

Southeast Alaska is a collection of northern rainforest islands described as the Alexander Archipelago. The amount of rainfall in Southeast communities is the stuff of folklore and personal stories. Infl uenced by tides, prevailing winds, snow-capped mountains, and the nature of a maritime climate, our environment invites precipitation. Warmed just enough by off shore currents, snowfall is not as determined as rainfall. We do have periods of time when snow is plentiful, but it is commonly chased away by rain. Often, it takes only a degree or two of temperature change for one form of precipitation to become another. It is in those few degrees of variation that our stories change, our moods change, and sometimes our lives change. Although the weather is a frequent discussion, Southeast Alaska is more than rainfall or snow. There is the interconnectedness of life seen so clearly here. The lines of life are a vast spider web that conjoin to form our environment--the land to the sea, the wild creatures to their surroundings and each other, the human connections to all. I wish that the following collection of poems will present the reader with an increased appreciation of our unique environment and lifestyle and how each is so reliant on the other. lrib

About the Author

Eli (Lee) Ribich was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1941. He graduated from Hamtramck High School in 1958, then from Wayne State University in 1968 with a Bachelor’s and later with a Master’s Degree in Secondary Education. Throughout his formative years Lee felt a yearning for those things that a big city, midwestern life style didn’t offer: Mountains, seashore, forests-- the stuff of poetry. The city did offer to Lee one of his inspirations, however: his wife, Gail. Together, Lee and Gail found Alaska where those early yearnings were realized and exceeded. The two taught in three Yupik Eskimo communities for five enriching years, then moved to Southeast Alaska to the fishing community of Petersburg. Lee taught English and Social Studies courses at Petersburg High School, sixth grade Physical Education, and coached junior varsity boys and girls varsity basketball. After retirement, Lee taught adult creative writing courses through University of Alaska, Southeast Extension Services. These small community experiences provided depth and richness to their lives, including two children and three grandchildren. Teaching, coaching, parenting, fishing, guiding, observing, loving all done in one of the world’s more magnificent settings, Alaska--inspiration abounds.