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.
It is the micro-season of “Plants Show Their First Buds''. This is the last micro-season of the mini season of Rain Water. To honor this season we are looking at maple syrup and reading "Evening in the Sugar Orchard" by Robert Frost.
“The mourning dove/ wearing noon’s aureole/ coos from the rhododendron”(excerpt from “What the Dove Sings” by Carol Frost) Today we honor the mourning dove with poems by Emily Dickinson, Joe Tessitor, Carol Frost, and Galway Kinnel.
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks” - H.W. Longfellow. Born on February 27, 1807, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a poet, educator, translator, and environmentalist. In a three-part series titled “Longfellow’s Nature Poetry”, the National Park Service explores Longfellow’s connection to the land and how it influenced his writing.
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
We are at the end of the micro-season, “The Chicken Lays Her First Eggs”. Although, Chickens may not be laying very many eggs in New England right now, we do have traditions like Groundhog's Day and poetry by Hickler, Issa, and Kerouac to remind us that spring is coming.
Sunshine rides on space and poetry on sunshine./Poetry gives birth to sunshine, and sunshine to poetry.-excerpt from Armfuls of Poetry, Drops of Sunshine by Thich Nhat Hahn. On January 22, 2022, Thich Nhat Hanh passed away at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam. Today we honor his work by looking at his teachings and his poetry.
Jacqueline Siskin states that “Awe” lies at the heart of poetry. Awe allows us to see what matters in the world. It helps us find the joy, the sorrow, and the connections that can lead to individual and collective healing.
January is typically the coldest time of the year and today we look at the poetry of Helen Hunt Jackson, William Carlos Williams, Basho, Issa, and Shiki as they explore the impact of the winter winds.
“I didn’t know it, but I was having a 'haiku moment’- a moment when the mind stops and the heart moves”. This quote is from Margaret McGee, the author of Haiku: The Sacred Art (A Spiritual Practice in Three Lines), and it marks the beginning of her journey toward a haiku life.
Cold midwinter days provided plenty of time for poets like Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, Matsuo Basho, and Kobayashi Issa to reflect on the snow and ice and our connection to it.
SeasonWords.com 