092622_GYS_2022_ONLINE

GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 53 Mid-July is a between-time in Yellow Springs, according to Bill Felker. A brief, liminal spell of relative stillness, dotted by the occasional heat-borne thunderstorm, the few weeks surrounding July 14 — the date at the time of Felker’s interview with the News — are a “stable” time, he said. “It’s a period between the heavy birdsong of spring and early summer and then the cricket and cicada song of middle and late summer,” Felker said, seated in his ver - dant Yellow Springs backyard. “It’s quieting down, and then pretty soon the robins disap - pear for a while, just waiting to come back in fall.” Felker has observed and documented nearly four decades’ worth of July 14s over the years as the weekly author of “Poor Will’s Alma - nack.” Since its first appear - ance in the Yellow Springs News on Feb. 1, 1984, the “Almanack” has maintained a record of the natural rhythms of Life — capital “L” — in the village. Over the course of each essay, and its attendant weekly data, Felker conjures meaning from the cyclical arrivals and departures of plants, animals and insects; in the returns of heat waves and cold fronts; in the rise of the sun every morning and the composition of the stars every night. This compulsion to listen for the earth’s own quiet leit - motifs, Felker said, began half a century ago when he was studying for a doctoral degree in Spanish at the University of Tennessee while living in Knoxville. He began docu- menting barometric patterns around 1972 when his wife, the late Jeanie Felker, gave him a gift intended to ease his school-related stress. “She gave me a barometer as I was going crazy with research and stuff, and I started tracking the weather,” he said. Felker pulled out a large tome of graphs representing years’ worth of barometric data. Along the graphs’ lines, Bill Felker’s ‘Poor Will’s Almanack’— POETRY IN NATURE’S PATTERNS By LAUREN ‘CHUCK’ SHOWS From July 2022 ▲ Villager Bill Felker looks through one of his barometric logbooks, which track the weather over the course of decades. Since 1984, Felker has used similar data to write “Poor Will’s Almanack” for the Yellow Springs News. P H O T O : L A U R E N ‘ C H U C K ’ S H O W S Wilberforce Community Center Available for rentals & gatherings for families, clubs, groups & events. Conveniently located 10 minutes from Yellow Springs. Rental rates starting at $150. • 1208 Wilberforce-Clifton Rd. •  937-307-9622  gclark8515@aol.com