Connecting to nature through poetry and prose
“With a rare leaf for a roof in the rain,/With a rare cap for his cardinal hood,/The cardinal bird remains”-Orrick Johns. The Northern Cardinal is a striking bird that has captured the imagination of poets for generations. To honor this bird, we are reading cardinal related poetry for Orrick Johns, Nancy McCleery, and Alfred Noyes.
“Your sort of gorgeousness,/Dark and lustrous/And unfathomable/And poopy-glossy/ Is the gorgeousness that evokes my darkest admiration”- D.H. Lawrence. Today we honor the wild turkey with a poem and then an investigation into Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts about this native bird.
We have entered the micro-season of “Fish Rise From the Ice''. We are honoring this time of year by looking at the tradition of ice fishing and reading “The Fish” by William Butler Yeats.
Snowshoe hares, or Lepus americanus, are frequent visitors to our neighborhood. Finding their tracks in the snow reminds me of how fascinating these animals are and some of the poems they inspire
In a short article written for Northern Woodlands, Rebecca Perkins Hanissian ponders her relationship to migratory birds. Besides being a humorous read about human behavior, this article identified 5 avian adaptations worth sharing.
What can we learn about ourselves and our community when we listen to the birds? David G Haskell invites us to find out with 5 invitations.
We have entered the micro-season of “The Elk Sheds its Horns”. Elk actually have antlers, not horns. So we should be referring to this micro-season as "Elk Shed its Antlers". Our exploration into this season will look at the elk, the antlers, and a few haiku.
We have entered the micro season of “The Salmon Gather to Spawn”. This is the last season of the mini season Major Snow. This micro-season focuses on the anadromous behavior of salmon and the myth of Osuke, the king of salmon.
In the winter woods the sound of a woodpecker resonates through the trees. This drumming or tapping behavior of the woodpeckers makes these birds both noticeable and unique. As a result there are many poems written about them. Today we have poems by Dickinson, Alling, Basho, Issa, and Silverstein.
If you happen to be lucky enough to have an encounter with a fox, you may be inspired to write a poem about it. Today we have poems for Alice Oswald, Jane Hirshfield, Issa, and a story about Basho.
The favorite nature books of 2021 as identified by our readers.
The Canadian Geese migration is one of those amazing feats of the natural world. When you think about this, and then watch them fly in their V formation, it makes sense that poets like Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry would incorporate them into their verse.
Naturalist Weekly 