The Whole Field • Volume 4 • No. 23 • New Moon • December 19, 2025
Tenderness • Oil-based relief ink, words in graphite
One Way to Love the World • Poem & linocut print
And Briefly Speaks • Reduction linocut
Emily Stoddard - Ironweed Arts • 2025
To Build a Sauna, Porcupine, & Ash
three poems from The Salt Before It Shakes
by Yvonne Stephens
A note from Taylor: Here's a treat, three poems from Yvonne Stephens' "debut collection of poems," in which she "writes about nature, loss, change, hope, motherhood, and family with honesty, courage, sensitivity, and moments of keen existential humor. [Her] poetry offers a welcome respite from and insight for 21st century life."
There you have it—"welcome respite from and insight for 21st century life." Enjoy To Build a Sauna here, and click through for Porcupine and Ash.
TO BUILD A SAUNA
and uphold a Finnish tradition
because I’m 1/4 Finn
and you,
you love saunas.
You have wanted a sauna for some time.
I’ll build it by hand —
make it round or oval.
Someone once told me
the absence of corners
gives the sauna
a womb-like feel.
Since I can’t give birth
we could get born
out of this small room I build
to sit in with you.
Taking a sauna
can be good for your health.
It can be good to sit and sweat
then rinse it all away.
It can purify.
So, my love
while my hands are still able
I’d like to build a sauna for you.
About the author: Yvonne Stephens lives with her husband and two children in Northwest Lower Michigan. She has worked as an assistant in the fields of mycology, forestry, and neurology research, volunteered for two years in the AmeriCorps, and was an employee for Crosshatch from 2009-2016, where she served as Events Coordinator then Artist Residency Coordinator. She is currently an assistant librarian in the small rural community in which she lives. An award-winning poet, Yvonne was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2015, and her poems have appeared in various publications including the journal Dunes Review, and Family Stories from the Attic anthology.
The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration
|| 1 || In our last newsletter, on December 5th, I shared an essay about my experience with rural public transportation in our area. Less than a week later, the front page of our county newspaper carried a story announcing an increase in fees for the transit system, the first in decades. In brief, a regular fare is increasing from $3 to $4.
With that announcement, I’m sure the director of the county transportation system has had her hands full with plenty of folks wanting to offer an earful on the change and how the system should be run. Still, when I showed up unannounced at the Antrim County Transportation offices the day after the newspaper hit mailboxes, she welcomed me for conversation and shared what she had been working through. She became the director six months ago and has been doing her darnedest since to shift the system into gear as a resilient and dependable service for a wide array of folks in the area. Speaking with her was heartening, and I’m excited about what she’s envisioning. I’m not saying this is happening, and neither was she, but she did offer a glance at a draft promo flier for a fixed route bus offering, the Local’s Loop, that had been sitting on her desk.
Speaking of transportation costs, I finally got our car into the shop this week for a diagnosis. Seven hours later, I left with nothing more than a conversation’s worth of input—one of the two repairs we’re looking into would likely run about 1,000 bus fares' worth of dollars. That was on Monday, and I still haven’t received a written estimate of the work. Thinking about that many rides versus the repair cost, not to mention the cost of insurance and registration, maintenance, and gas, makes for some interesting calculus. If those sorts of questions, those that weigh financial decisions along with costs of local infrastructure, get you thinking, the first event in this edition’s warp, “Nourishing a Bioregional Economy”, might be worth a gander.
|| 2 || I wanted to share a bit about Yvonne Stephens, although in a way removed from our family and Crosshatch’s neighborly and intertwined experience with her and her family, which isn’t easy. I did find this Q&A with Yvonne from 2018. In it, when asked which poets/books of poetry she keeps close at hand, she mentions Jane Kenyon among a few others. Emily Stoddard, whose own poetic and visual art graces the top of this email, might answer similarly. And Briefly Speaks, her trillium reduction print, is named after a Kenyon poem, which Emily details a bit more here. Kinship among the arts—a lovely thing. Here’s a brief excerpt of a write-up from Lydia Catterall that refracts light on communication and belonging amongst artists in particular:
I feel gaslit by everything but trees and artists. Thank god I feel safe in the hands of both.
What a strange state of affairs to look around and ask how artists ‘fit into the plan’. In the wider progressive project, what can artists do for us? Like looking at a field of wild horses and asking ‘do you think they could do something for the landscape?’
The landscape is a wilderness of its own design; self sufficiently roaming, intertwined with itself, carrying wisdom in its roots. The horses are wild too, but wild and warm. Hot, breathing, bodies traversing; encountering. In conversation with and yet all of themselves. This is how it is for artist.
|| 3 || The next Whole Field is technically scheduled for a time of organizational rest. Ideally, we’ll be resting then, so the next edition will hit your inbox on January 18. Until then, stay warm. Many thanks to Two Hoots Studio, Deep Wood Press, Brotherton Farm, and all who’ve helped light up the space at Crosshatch Meeting Place + Mercantile so far. We’ll see you next year. Wait, what? Miffed that there wasn’t more sauna conversation in this edition? I’ll throw you a bone: a sauna experience paired with Jon Hopkins’ music. If you’re in the UK, Jon Hopkins x Saunasthesia: Sauna RITUAL seems like quite the way to welcome the winter. For the rest of us, listening from afar might have to do.
The Weft — News and Events
We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!
|| 1 || Nourishing a Bioregional Economy - Put Your Money Where Your Feet Are. A free online event, 1pm EST, January 29th, hosted by Resilience+. Learn more about the conversation with Diana Morton and Michael Shuman, focused on investing locally and building bioregional institutions, and register, here.
|| 2 || Good Hart Artist Residency (Harbor Springs, MI)—Open Call for Applications. "Visual artists, writers, and composers are invited to submit applications on Submittable to our open call between December 1, 2025 through January 13th, 2026 for residencies scheduled between June 2026 - May 2027." Click here for more details on applications, upcoming residency opportunities, and information sessions.
|| 3 || Sky High Farm Grants. Applications are now open through January 20th. "Sky High will award $350,000 in grants (total) to individuals working in agriculture, food justice, and/or land sovereignty. The average proposal funded in 2025 was $11,000 with grants ranging from $1500 up to $30,000." Find more on the grants, Sky High Farm, and applying, here.
|| 4 || Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance (MOFFA) Organic Intensives 2026. Saturday, January 10th. Registration now open. Click here to learn more about the one-day learning experience offering tracks in medicinal herbs, home food gardening, and cut flowers.
|| 5 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: the Bob James & DiSimone Family Holiday Concert, Funky Uncle, The Alluvion Big Band, Big Fun, Funky Uncle with special guest Will Marsh, The Ship Yard Performance Series, The Jeff Haas Trio featuring Laurie Sears + Lisa Flahive, Michael Dease City Life Quintet featuring Geoffrey Keezer & Billy Kilson, and EXPAND Storytelling #10.
Find more information at thealluvion.org.
sponsored by:
Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors is a mission-driven, fee-only wealth management company with a simple purpose: to generate exceptional value for the individuals, families, small business owners, and non-profit organizations they serve. Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors believe in and adhere to triple-bottom-line analysis for portfolio investments, ensuring that they review how a company’s environmental and social values impact its long-term resilience and, consequently, value.
Crosshatch’s The Whole Field is a biweekly (meaning roughly every other week) human-written newsletter. We aim to provide engaging, thought-provoking content that’s worth your time. Click here to subscribe to our mailing list.
We also envision this best as a collaborative work. If you have any suggestions, leads, questions or feedback, let us know.
Copyright (C) 2025 Crosshatch. All rights reserved.
