We are at the end of National Poetry Month and turning towards longer, warmer days in the Pacific Northwest. This week in our writing group, various people brought in some of their favorite nature writing or ecopoems to share. We heard an excerpt from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, poems by Tim McNulty and Nancy Lynée Woo,and a new visitor brought in several books by Vandana Shiva.
I shared one of my favorite craft books by Tina Welling called Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature. This book is a great resource for coupling time spent in nature with creative writing. It also brings up some questions for me about where nature writing or ecopoems come from. How often is our work emerging from time spent in and with nature versus focusing on issues involving nature. Does that make the work better or worse? As a group we wrote a bit about how nature brings out our own stories.
Everything we know about creating,' writes Tina Welling, 'we know intuitively from the natural world.'
Finally, we read “Evening” by Dorianne Laux which I consider an earth lament. How do we celebrate our experience in nature while also acknowledging our fear and grief?
As an exercise try to write about poem about a certain time of day—evening, morning, sunset, midnight?
· What elements of Earth/Nature are present?
· What feeling or mood are you trying to convey?
· Is there a moment of hope?
Our next in-person meeting is May 10th from 12-1 pm at Village Books All are welcome. You can also follow along here on my substack page which includes regular posts and a new podcast!
Environmentalist Anonymous meets the 2nd and 4th Wednesday at Village Books from 12-1 pm. This is free and open to the public. I will email a synopsis of our gathering and post on my substack page, Her Deepest Ecologies, for easier access (no subscription required to see writing group updates).