Connecting to nature through poetry and prose
The porch is this amazing human creation that allows us to be outside, yet maintain the safety of the indoors. Charlie Hailey, in a recent essay printed in Orion Magazine, provides us with an exploration into how the porch can be a doorway between us and the natural world.
The Chrysanthemum has found its way into the poetry of ancient China, Japan, and 1900s England. Here is a collection of poems and haikus that highlight this flower.
When the Japanese adapted the Chinese 24 season calendar into 72 seasons they created a series of micro-seasons. Each one of these micro-seasons lasts five or six days. Today, we are in the micro-season of “The Chrysanthemum Flowers”. This is also the time of the Chongyang Festival.
Two podcasts that every reader and writer must have on your playlist.
With the leaves dropping from the branches, and the flowers curling in on themselves, the poets are spurred to pick up their pens and write about these transitions. Today we have three poems about leaves.
Early October welcomes the mini-season of Cold Dew. As a way to welcome in this mini-season, we will look at some seasonal changes including bird molting and fall foliage. We will then read a poem by Emily Brontë.
The reasons for wanting to pass down knowledge can be various, but what remains the same is the underlying hope that others can benefit from your experiences. Today we have two books from accomplished authors that contribute to creating a sense of wonder in the natural world.
From the budding apple tree to the fall harvest, each moment of an apple’s life can find its way into poetic verse. Today we have collected four poems from four poets that will take you from the apple blossom to the apple harvest.
The pastoral elegy poem is one where the poet both focuses on the idyllic countryside and the experience of loss and death. Originating in ancient Greece, this poetic form continues today.
Emily Dickinson wrote: “Had Nature an Apostate-/ That Mushroom -it is Him!”. These lines acknowledge that mushrooms do not follow any of the traditional laws of nature. Dickinson is telling us, in her own poetic fashion, that mushrooms are a breed unto themselves. Today we have poems by Dickinson, Quinones, Sze, and Rohrer, that investigate the fascinating fungal kingdom.
The mini-season of Autumn Equinox runs from September 22 until October 7. The Harvest Moon is a relevant kigo, or seasonal words, to use when writing haiku. In today's post we will read some harvest moon inspired poetry and haiku.
Pastoral poetry focuses on an idealized notion of the rural landscape. This tradition started with Hesiod and we can still find traces of it in the work of Wendell Berry and Dylan Thomas.
SeasonWords.com 