The Shaw Nature Reserve southwest of St. Louis is a place where silence reigns, and good conversations can be had with poets.
Nature and “Dream Work”: We Had Mary Oliver for a Time
Poet Mary Oliver showed us how to employ nature to come to terms with where we come from, and to point to where we might be going.
By Heart: “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” + New Poetry Challenge
Join author Megan Willome as she learns Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” By Heart and considers authorship.
Dreams & Imaginings: Trail Tags
Author Megan Willome’s dream to earn more trail tags gets interrupted by lightning—and she ponders where to go from here.
Children’s Book Club: “Blueberries for Sal”
Author Megan Willome and her mother and Little Sal and her mother and Little Bear and his mother get mixed up among the blueberries in this month’s Children’s Book Club.
Walking in the Dark: A Path Into Poetry
Walking (especially in the dark) is author Megan Willome’s path to poetry. Her steps begin in early morning moonlight and sometimes trace past a windmill.
Children’s Book Club: “Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees”
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai loved people an the world by planting trees. Join author Megan Willome for a Children’s Book Club discussion.
Reader, Come Home: “Little Rhymes for Lowly Plants”
Join us for deep reading with author Megan Willome as we discuss a poetry collection about plants for Poetic Earth Month. And share your March pages for our Reader, Come Home column.
Tweetspeak Poetry Party, Part 2: Skywoman Braids Sweetgrass
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer provided the prompts for Tweetspeak Poetry’s recent poetry party on Twitter. These are the final five poems.
Tweetspeak Poetry Party: Skywoman Braids Sweetgrass
Tweetspeak Poetry’s recent poetry party on Twitter resulted in ten poems about Skywoman, braiding sweetgrass, trees, and a gift.
A Story in Every Soul: Step By Classical Step
Dheepa R. Maturi shares how a story by E.M. Forster stirs hope, motivating her to re-examine her role in protecting the earth, step by step.
Traveling with Mark Twain and Eddy Harris on the Mississippi River
Writer Eddy Harris canoed the Mississippi River in 1985, and he discovered that the river has its personality, its mood, and its conversations.
Poets and Poems: David Whyte and “The Bell and the Blackbird”
“The Bell and the Blackbird,” the new poetry collection by David Whyte, is full of surprises but retains Whyte’s trademark simplicity and depth.
Poets and Poems: Athena Kildegaard and “Course”
The poems of “Course” by Athena Kildegaard provide a kind of natural sanctuary, where one comes to watch and to listen to what the landscape has to say.
Regional Tour: Of Alligators and Everglades
Sandra Heska King has all the adventure—and alligators—she could ever want right in her own backyard, in the Everglades.
Poets and Poems: Michelle Menting and “Leaves Surface Like Skin”
The poems of ‘Leaves Surface Like Skin” by Michelle Menting use the images and metaphors of nature to explore and explain the human condition.
The First Poetry for Children: “Divine Emblems” by John Bunyan
In 1686, the English Puritan minister and writer John Bunyan published what we know today as “Divine Emblems,” the first book of poetry for children.
Last Child in the Woods: Place-Based Education
Can taking the classroom outside help students learn? Richard Louv says yes in our final discussion of Last Child in the Woods.
Last Child in the Woods: Afraid of the Great Outdoors
In this week’s discussion of Last Child in the Woods we consider the way fear removes us from nature, and how a desire to protect nature can contribute to that fear.
Audubon’s Birds and the Habits of Nature Writing
John James Audubon’s meticulous and detailed approach to studying birds can inspire not only the nature writer but anyone wishing to write more vividly.