But dead raccoons also make it into the Perry senior's poetry. Kalmbach describes herself as an introverted eco-poet, and sees poetry as a way to describe the ecological concerns of nature through words.

“I’ve always felt drawn to it,” she said. “I guess I feel like the human-nature relationship is something that needs to be focused on not only in an activist sense, but in an appreciation of nature.”

Kalmbach will share her eco-poetry as the first Central Michigan University student featured reader at the final Wellspring Literary Series event of the semester at Art Reach, 111 E. Broadway St. at 7 p.m.

Kalmbach said she tries to show a relationship between human and nonhuman things, instead of writing a didactic poem with a specific message telling people what to do.

"Sometimes I write poems from the perspective of a flower or a tree or nature itself, even the elements like wind,” she said.

Kalmbach was a recipient of the 2012 Nature in Words Fellowship program from the Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, during which she hiked trails and immersed herself in nature for the 12-week program. This gave her the opportunity to strengthen her writing skills involving nature.

"I basically soliloqued my way through the forest this summer," she said.

Kalmbach's mentor for the program was CMU associate professor of English Robert Fanning.

“As a student and practitioner of eco-poetry, Courtney's work focuses not only on nature, but on our often invasive and harmful relationship with it,” Fanning said. “She has always tapped into natural imagery for its metaphorical potential, but in the last year, she has consciously approached nature as a foreground subject and a driver of her work. I was fortunate to serve as her mentor for the Nature in Words fellowship at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute and to witness this development.”

Kalmbach said her first creative writing class was instructed by Fanning and that he and several other professors impacted her writing at CMU. Kalmbach heard about the fellowship through associate professor of English Jeffrey Bean.

“I really needed that time in the woods because poetry is meant to be read out loud to be fully experienced,” Kalmbach said.

During her time as a fellow, Kalmbach carried a pen and notebook while navigating the trails. Kalmbach said when she first began writing, she felt overwhelmed because she wrote about her longing to experience nature.

At night, while some other fellows would socialize, Kalmbach would be gather her thoughts and put it down on paper.

“I’m a more active writer at night," she said. "This summer, I would collect all of my findings for the day and sometime throughout the day or at night actually be able to internalize them, write them out."

Kalmbach said Bean introduced her to eco-poetry, and she is eternally grateful for him because of that.

“It makes me feel very proud,” Bean said. “Eco-poetry was a passion and interest of mine, particularly in graduate school, and it is rewarding to be able to share that interest with a student as receptive to it as Courtney.”

Bean said Kalmbach has taken two poetry-writing workshops with him, and has read several pieces of her work. Bean plans on attending the reading Monday to support Kalmbach and will be performing as well.

“I will be watching Courtney perform at Wellspring, and I will be cheering her on,” Bean said. “In fact, I and the other members of the creative writing faculty band, 'Daryl and the Beans,' will be performing music as part of the show."

Kalmbach isn’t the only one learning something new in her classes. Fanning said Kalmbach also taught him a few things as well.

“Courtney, like many of our other creative writing students who are en route to some of the country's best MFA programs, has worked hard and learned a great deal from all of her professors,” Fanning said. “That is utterly thrilling for me to see, and to say with certainty. But, what is even greater than that is that I know I too have learned about the art from her. That two-way street, the sharing of knowledge as a conversation, is education at its finest and the very reason I teach.”