sky island
n.— «From a parched sea of desert in southeastern Arizona, Mt. Graham rises 2 miles to a crested summit above the clouds. Isolated in time and space for 11,000 years, the mountain is what biologists call a sky island, “a cradle of evolution.”» —“A Desert Mountain Versus The Stars” by Carol Ann Bassett Newsday (Long Island, New York) May 5, 1987. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Nancy Gabriel from Ithaca, New York, recalls her father’s no-nonsense responses to minor injuries when she was a child: After making sure she was really all right, he’d say, It’s far enough from your heart; it won’t kill you. Other times he might...
Our discussion of Anglo-Saxon kennings inspired listener Paul Holler of Arlington Heights, Illinois, to write a lovely poem exploring the idea of the kenning sea-guest, meaning “sailor,” and what it means to be a guest of the sea and what that says...