'Into the moonlit woods'

“We climb into the cellar hole

of the old Bailey place

that caught fire in the middle

of the night, the seven children

who raced into the moonlit woods

in weightless clothes gowns and bedclothes’’

— From “Into the Forest,’’ by Anna Birch (1970), reflecting her experiences as a child in Hollis, N.H.

Mystical physics

“The Mystic Alone Sees the Sun Aglow at Midnight,’’ (tar and gold leaf on canvas), by Christopher Volpe, in his show “Alchemy and After,’’ at Kingston Gallery, Boston, Nov. 3-28. Art New England says:

“Christopher Volpe’s paintings are stark conduits of the inherent oppositions between human beings and the natural world.”

He lives in Hollis, N.H.

Monument Square and Hollis Town Hall