Recommend Some Nature Poetry
 

Now that summer is here, I find myself hiking through the various parks in and around Vancouver, where I like to bring along a book of poetry to keep me company. I’ve come to realize, though, that outside of haiku, I’m largely unfamiliar with the nature poetry being written today. I’d like to remedy that as quickly as possible.

For context, I’m decently read in the canon, and so I’m already familiar with Wordsworth, Frost, Clare, Jeffers, Clampitt, medieval lyrics that tell me to “lhude sing cuccu,” and Herrick’s daffodils. What I’m looking for is poetry written this millennium, or at least by people who lived into this millennium.

Work by Spherians would be great. Formal poetry is a plus, but I’m open to free verse, too. My only criteria are excellence and availability in English, whether that means in translation or poetry from anywhere in the English-speaking world.

So, any suggestions? Or any thoughts about what's going on with nature poetry is today?

Here are some names to investigate: Mary Oliver, Maxine Kumin, Linda Pastan, Louise Gluck (The Wild Iris is written in the persona of different flowers). I prefer poetry that is more human-centered than nature-centered, so most of these tend more in that direction. But they do pay close attention to nature at times.

Susan

Thanks for the recommendations, Susan. I own The Wild Iris but struggle to call it nature poetry because it is so obviously centered around a human relationship. I know of Mary Oliver, but the few poems I've read of hers struck me as being sentimental and unconvincing. I'd be happy to be argued out of this judgement, though.

I have wanted to learn more about Maxine Kumin, so this may spur me to do so. Linda Pastan is new to me. Are there any volumes / standout poems that would be good starting points?

I like early Oliver, which is much more natural, far better than her later more sentimental work.

Try Wendell Berry. His first Sabbath poem is one of my very favorite nature poems. He also is a semi-formalist.

If you can get your hands on poems by Hugh Ogden (a little known CT poet), you can find yourself some good nature poems here and there. His collection Bringing a Fir Straight Down is, IMO, quite good at times, and has some good nature poems.

I agree Mary Oliver can be sentimental, but at her best, I think she is very, very good. Here's one I can't forget.

Hi Edward,

You've probably run into the Scot Edwin Muir, who's from the last century but quite fond of nature. Here's "The Horses":

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horses/

"The Animals" is also nice.

Cheers,
John

A.R. Ammons

That makes me think of W.S. Merwin:

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps...win/online.htm

Cheers,
John

David Whyte.
He is a naturalist/philosopher-poet. He writes with the heart of Rilke.

Seamus Heaney.
x

Mary Oliver is well-known as a nature poet. I enjoy her work.

Also, there is a nice little book entitled Poems of Nature (edited by William Roetzheim, Level 4 Press, Inc.). I have a copy, which I purchased several years ago. The front cover blurb says: “An important collection of emerging and well-known poets.” —Miller Williams

This small anthology also contains a CD of various people reading the poems. I haven’t heard it because, believe it or not, I don’t have a CD player.

Mark Allinson, a former Spherian, has a poem in the book.

Wendell Berry comes to mind. (And now see he's been mentioned).

Yes, how did we miss Seamus Heaney? Or for that matter, Derek Walcott.

Cheers,
John

Here are some nature-informed poets I like:

Harry Humes
William Pitt Root
Maggie Schwed
Keith Taylor

Going back in time a bit, there's the wonderful John Clare.

Wow. I came home from work and am delighted to see that the collected wisdom of the Sphere has come through.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I see that I will have to look more carefully at Mary Oliver’s work, or at least her early work. The poem linked to by Michael is better than the others I’ve seen by her, but even there the clichéd ending about letting what you love go free is disappointing. Wendell Berry sounds very intriguing, and I’ll have to look up the half dozen poets whose names are new to me.

I know the work of Heaney and Walcott and think of their voices as having been formed much earlier, even though both wrote well until near the end of their lives. I see that Walcott’s White Egrets is well thought of.

What I’m hoping is that someone will point me to newer emerging poets who are writing (or have the potential to write) the Tintern Abbey or Cooper’s Hill of our age.

For context, I love the work of Amy Clampitt, and poems like The Cormorant in its Element and The Winter Bird are truly great. My favourite nature poem by hers is A Hermit Thrush, with its view of nature as constantly wounded and patching itself and making do. The nature poem with the greatest influence on me, though, is Corsons Inlet by A.R. Ammons, with its view of nature as ever-changing and defying categorization. It’s a view of nature as chaos theory and a poetics at the same time.

It bothered me that I couldn’t name any poems from the last 20 years that have affected me in that way, and that I was ignorant of what’s happening now. So thank-you for your suggestions, and I hope that the recommendations will keep coming.

Edward, I've always read that poem as being about mortality and death, and the vital necessity of loving what must die. I don't think she's parroting the "if you love something, set it free..." saying. To me she's going rather deeper. Of course that may be my own peculiar reading.

Regardless, I also very much like this thread. Glad you started it.

M

I also think the Oliver poem is about loving what must die; and I also found that ending rather predictable and underwhelming. Sorry. I seem to recall finding other poems of hers very fresh.

Cheers,
John

No need to apologize, John.

As they say on Wall Street, "That's what makes markets."

:-)

Nice quote.

Cheers,
John

The best-crafted and most emotionally affecting nature poems I've read in the past few years are in two collections published by Alex Pepple's Able Muse Press:

All the Wasted Beauty of the World by Richard Newman

Greed: A Confession by D.R. Goodman

Neither book presents a traditionally romantic, pastoral view of nature. Newman often explores reassertions of the natural world within areas of urban decay (usually in or near St. Louis, MO); Goodman often explores the interface between development and wildlands (Oakland, CA, and elsewhere).

I'm aware that these approaches to nature are probably not to everyone's taste, but I find both inspiring. Here are one poem from each book:

Richard Newman, "Alley Possum"

Fellow urbanite, how could your race
survive—convinced I can't see you this close,
hunched next to our back porch, your grinning face
hidden behind a bag of Ranch Doritos.
In our next-door neighbor's headlights, your eyes shine
Heineken green, and you keep eating, heedless.
You forage in the cracks of our lives and dine
on our debris, jaws crammed with infected needles.
By day you play dead in a dumpster—poke
you with a stick, and your whole being explodes.
Primordially stupid, tireless joke,
you waddle down the shoulders of our roads,
loot gardens, lie in our bed of impatiens,
finding the hidden gaps in our foundations.

D.R. Goodman, "Owls in the City Hills"

I'm glad for the reminder from Julie about Goodman's book, which is excellent and does focus a lot on nature.

Susan

Many thanks for the recommendations, Julie. That was exactly what I was looking for. The Goodman, in particular, looks superb.

I've been able to get hold of a copy of Derek Walcott's White Egrets, whose title series of poems is superb, and Wendell Berry's New & Collected Sabbath Poems. I hope others will profit as much as I have from all the suggestions here.

Hi Edward,

Let me also recommend Derek Walcott's Omeros, his reimagining of the Iliad in Saint Lucia. It's tremendous.

Cheers,
John