During the summer of this poem’s event, I read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which seemingly every river, creek, and spring has a presiding god. The worldview that places have animate personalities, and thus deserve legal representation, has recently informed landmark environmental policies (see: Whanganui River, New Zealand). “Altar” explores what it means, in the anthropocene, to meet, acknowledge, and be acknowledged by a river’s presiding personality.

Sam Olson (he/him) is a candidate for the MFA in Poetry at Oregon State University. Prior, he taught environmental science, managed wilderness trail crews, and taught poetry in Montana’s schools. His writing can be found in Camas: Nature of the West, Cutbank, and Deep Wild.