Anyone who has ever needed to go on a hike to escape the city, find peace and make sense of the world can probably relate to local poet Julia Stein’s latest book “Walker Woman.”

A teacher at Santa Monica College, Stein writes about being frustrated at cutbacks that often force her to teach without the essentials. Stein’s poem about teaching her immigrant students about what Proposition 187 will mean to them (and teaching them “a new word – unconstitutional”) speaks to both the tumult of big city life and the possibilities one finds in that tumult.

But what makes “Walker Woman” unique is that as much as it is about the city, it is also about nature and what it contributes to modern life. Stein’s poetry describes a broad range of natural scenes and experiences, from climbing Mount Shasta and trekking across the desert, to seeing wild animals and nurse logs. There is wisdom in nature, Stein’s poetry says, the trick is to seek it out.

The following is an interview with Stein conducted at her home and by e-mail. Stein will be reading from her book at a publication party at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 23rd at Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, 11975 San Vicente Blvd.

A.D. How would you compare the way nature is portrayed in modern poetry versus how it’s portrayed in, say, the poetry of someone like Pope or someone like Byron, or even Shakespeare. What’s the difference between the role of nature then versus now in poetry?

J.S. First of all I say there’s a similarity, because we are influenced by people like Byron and Wordsworth in our views of nature, in our views of like the sacredness of nature. But I think they were the ones who began to see nature under assault, the fact that the new factories were destroying or beginning to eat up the English countryside. And I think we’re much more [accustomed to] seeing nature being assaulted, being destroyed. And I think that’s a difference because in some ways I think the idea of pure, unspoiled nature … doesn’t exist for us anymore. It’s more like being desecrated and polluted. So I think we have to deal with that much more.

A.D. How about dealing with history. Do you think poetry is limited, or do you think you can analyze things from a historical perspective to the same degree that someone writing a book about some historical event could analyze it or bring it to light?

J.S. Well, I think historically, poetry was the history of the tribe. O.k., going back to Homer, going back to Native American history, which were in poetry. But we’ve lost a lot of that. But the people who seem to keep it the most are people like Neruda or Ernesto Cardinal, the Nicaragua poetry, because when they lived in societies of dictatorships they gave alternative histories in their poetry. And I think Latin American poets do that more than in this country. I mean people look to a Neruda or a Cardinal for an alternative view of the world, including a historical view of the world. And I think that’s one of the things we can learn from Neruda is how to put the history back into our poetry in North America.

A.D. What was the significance of writing about the nuclear threat, say in the ‘80s? Is there that same significance today, or is the nuclear threat as important to write about as it used to be?

J.S. Yes. I remember when I was doing this research I think it was the late ‘70s and I did this research about both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., which was involved in this nuclear arms race. And it showed how both of them were basically spending so much money on arms … that they were spending much less money on social services than European and other countries like Canada. And it was a prediction that it would eventually bankrupt both countries. And that’s what happened to the Soviet Union. I mean it basically fell apart. And I think one of the contributory factors was it spent so much money on arms and the economy of the U.S.S.R. was so bad. And I think the same thing is happening in this country. That we spend so much money on military that our health system in Los Angeles is beginning to fall apart and the education system. … So I think these issues go back to the Cold War of the ‘70s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

A.D. What are some of the difficulties Santa Monica College has faced recently because of the cutbacks?

J.S. Santa Monica College faces a budget shortfall of an estimated $3.2 million this fiscal year. A hiring freeze is on. Spring classes have been cut by 7.5 percent … By the way, LACC cut 40 percent of all classes for the spring semester (of) 2003. The cuts are at community colleges throughout California.

A.D. Why the urge to talk about the cutbacks in poetry?

J.S. When I started teaching immigrants at a community college, a writer friend suggested I write about it. There’s a tradition in American literature of writing about immigrants, including teaching immigrants – Jacob Reis, Upton Sinclair, the book “Up the Down Staircase.” So at first I wasn’t in the early 1990s writing about cutbacks but more generally about teaching immigrants. All four of my grandparents were immigrants who weren’t able to attend college in this country. Then in (the) early 1990s the first wave of cutbacks happened, so I wrote about those, too.