Poems in Species of Concern are centered in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia but also take readers to Istanbul, Mycenae, Kansas, and Sedona, and beyond. Throughout the collection are poems in which strong female figures, many of them mythical-Baba Yaga, Anemone, the Sieve Angel, the spider, the red velvet ant, and others-take a stand. They dare to break the fourth wall and speak directly to the world; they defy their reputations and "talk back." These sorceress songs are minimanifestos, clarion calls that comment on the poems just read and the ones about to come. These poems pose questions that include, "what is it to be guided, what kind of guidance do we choose, how can we know, when is knowing unhelpful?" Other prominent themes include mindfulness in nature, the urgency of the climate crisis, grieving, and practices of what Joanna Macy calls "active hope."