Earth Song Nature Poems Anthology is Born!
We’re delighted to announce that the Earth Song nature poems anthology is finally here.
It took two years to secure all the poem permissions, but the poems were worth the wait!
From established poets like Pablo Neruda, W.S. Merwin, and Jane Hirshfield to emerging poets like Michelle Ortega and Rick Maxson, the pages are filled with verse that sings in surprising ways to your soul. The collection also includes diverse voices, many in translation from across the globe.
We invite you to celebrate with us and the full list of poets who appear in Earth Song (past and present). Join all these voices and sing a song of earth:
Scott Edward Anderson, Crisosto Apache, L. L. Barkat, Sara Barkat, Wendell Berry, Kimberly Blaeser, William Blake, Robert Burns, Jennifer Chang, Briceida Cuevas Cob, Jack Cooper, Mahmoud Darwish, Emily Dickinson, Louise Erdrich, Forugh Farrokhzad, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Robert Frost, Mary Elizabeth Frye, Martha Greenwald, Jennifer Grotz, Thomas Hardy, Jane Hirshfield, Tony Hoagland, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Major Jackson, Emily Pauline Johnson, P. K., Irakli Kakabadze, Laura Kasischke, Jan Kaus, John Keats, D. H. Lawrence, Li-Young Lee, Si-Young Lee, Luljeta Lleshanaku, Kate Seymour Maclean, Rick Maxson, Janet McAdams, Claude McKay, W. S. Merwin, Sandra Fox Murphy, Pablo Neruda, Michelle Ortega, Anne M. Doe Overstreet, Peter Payack, Lola Ridge, Hermit Tai Shang, Dave Smith, Wallace Stevens, Rabindranath Tagore, Sara Teasdale, Wyatt Townley, Tomas Tranströmer, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Gerald Vizenor, Walt Whitman, Will Willingham, Elizabeth Woody, William Wordsworth, William Butler Yeats.
Try It: Earth Song Nature Poems Prompt
Celebrate today by penning your own song to or from the earth. Whether mountains, floral majesties, or monarchs, the lyrics are yours to compose!
(Btw, we’d love to feature your poem if it works for our audience. 🙂 )
Featured photo by L.L. Barkat. Used with permission.
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Renee Cassese says
I am very excited to see this! I love nature poems and most of what I write are gratitudes for Mother Nature’s gifts. My poet guru is Mary Oliver.
Renee
L.L. Barkat says
Glad to hear, Renee. 🙂 We look forward to any poems you share in celebration!
Renee says
Thank you!
Rebecca D. Martin says
Ghost Moth
I am on a trip, and there
you are, on my car
door; I didn’t see you land,
your bushy professor
eyebrows blowing in the gas station
breeze, your ragged
angel wings.
You came for me.
I know it. So don’t go.
Hitch a ride on my
shoulder, whisper
in my ear.
You died, didn’t you? Been to the other
side somehow and back. Tell me
your truths; brush the bone
of my jaw with your wings:
same thing.
I know you
have seen the real place,
crystal clear. You came
back to this bursted land and
your wings got caught
in the wreckage. (There is no other
way.) The window is down, but —
stay.
Bethany Rohde says
Rebecca, I just love those lines:
“Tell me
your truths; brush the bone
of my jaw with your wings”
So glad you shared this.
Renee says
Beautiful poem. Sharp images let me see the scene as it happened.
Rebecca D. Martin says
Bethany and Renee, thank you!
Sharmen Oswald says
Just ordered my copy and can’t wait for it to arrive! I lead Pegasus Poets and charged the group with a similar prompt. Here’s my attempt:
Consider the Honey Bee
Consider the honey bee,
How she flies so free!
Her favorite color, purple or blue
She isn’t afraid of me or you.
The hive has just one queen
Not easily seen.
Her workers fly to and fro
Always on the go.
Their wings, count them four
Beating 200 times per second or more!
Her drones are the only males
But workers over drones prevail.
The queen can live for five years
When she dies, there are no tears.
Workers select a larva, feed it royal jelly
Until the larva has a full belly.
Without the bees our crops suffer
Making our lives much tougher.
This intricate, magical system of the hive
Is a lesson for our own lives.
We work together, we are a team
For other’s well-being we esteem
Consider the honey bee
How she flies so free!
By Sharmen Oswald
L.L. Barkat says
Sharmen, that’s great. We hope you find some poems to love in the collection! And that’s fabulous, too, about Pegasus Poets.
From your poem, “200 times per second or more” is so amazing!!! 🙂 Thanks for writing of the honeybee.
(You might love our upcoming “Tell the Bees” event, btw. Check it out if you like: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tell-the-bees-tickets-361858587777 )
Rebecca D. Martin says
I like the steady, informative work through details of bees and their ways in this poem. Also, the repeated beginning and ending. I can envision it alongside beautiful illustrations!
Sharmen Oswald says
Just received my Earth Song. Love the title and completely understand the meaning behind the title after reading the foreward. As I am reading the poems, and rereading them, I do feel as if they have movement, much like music. Each one can stand alone, but collectively they create something so very special. Sara Barkat, you have created something beautiful and somber at the same time; you have created a masterpiece!
L.L. Barkat says
Sharmen, that is such a beautiful description and response to the book. I do know Sara would be grateful if you had time and willingness to put just these words on Amazon as a review—so others could see through your eyes and be invited to experience the work for themselves.
Thank you for your great encouragement! 🙂
Jenna Brack says
This looks like a beautiful collection!
A nature poem:
Over the snap, snap of pistachio shells,
the cicadas call through the walls
of my house, and what must I do,
but step into the pulse of night?
The fireflies (or do you call
them lightning bugs?)
are already at work,
bijoux of summer evenings.
Porch lights and window lights
lift on and off, mimicking
the flickering insects. For a half-minute,
the cicadas grow quiet, a dampened breeze
takes their place, shakes discarded
raindrops from the leaves with a hiss,
and I finally release the breath
I didn’t know I had been holding
inside my shell.
L.L. Barkat says
I especially like the full circle on “shell,” Jenna. 🙂 And those porch and window lights lifting on and off. It all feels a bit like music.
Jenna Brack says
Thank you, L.L. I value your feedback!
Rebecca D. Martin says
The many internal rhymes throughout are heaven to read.
The first two lines roll with wonderful sounds – the onomatopoeic snap, snap and the nearly audible idea of cicadas calling through walls – and such surprising images juxtaposed: cicadas and pistachio shells. I never would have thought of it, but they *do* go together.
Jenna says
Thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate your thoughtful response!
Sharmen Oswald says
I love the overarching theme of “shell” in different formats that runs throughout the poem, i.e. the picstacio shells, the cidada “shells” (exoskeleton) and finally your shell. As I read your poem, I have many sensory images – sounds (snap, snap), sight (flickering) and touch (dampened breeze). The connection between you and nature is obvious with your poem.
Sharmen Oswald says
As previously mentioned, I am loving Earth Song. I have been inspired by this collection. Here is one of the poems I wrote from this inspiration.
Be Still
As the sun slips away to just a sliver
And the earth is winding down,
I retreat to the forest, a giver
Of peace and sound.
I find my spot upon the earth
And sit in quiet repose.
I listen to the birds’ song of mirth,
Different from the sun’s show.
Their songs at eventide
Are calling to the night,
A different chime,
Bringing peaceful delight.
I hear birds I’ve never heard,
A different song they sing
One of hope deferred,
Peace to me they bring.
I walk away my soul richer
For being in the presence
Of God’s creation, a picture.
Be still, the night of evanescence.
Jenna says
I love the lines, “I find my spot upon the earth / And sit in quiet repose.” So gentle and peaceful.
Gail Junjulas says
alleluia
in our back woods a dead tree stands no bark
or branches– silver smooth
maple oak and others seek the light
ferns like lace below
a rusted wire surrounds its roots.
further on a row of houses swimming pools
in tiny landscaped yards
radios and TV sets
sounds of children cars delivery trucks.
not here– deer and fawn
squirrel rabbit mouse snake birds– rotting trees
worms and insects– in wild rose honeysuckle all–
scratch rub pee on lean against chew at crawl on fly over
speak– sing–cry the silver wood.
Rachel says
Hi. Just wondering, is buying Earth Song completely worth it? I saw another book online called Earth Sounds and the synopsis of both seem almost the same. Which one should I buy?
Sharmen Oswald says
I can’t speak for the Earth Sounds, but Earth Song has been a great revival type work for me. It’s inspired my writing, prose and poetry. I love the musicality of Earth Song.
Bethany R. says
Thanks for sharing your experience with the book, Sharmen!
Rachel says
Thank you!