Happy Earth Day & Poem #196
Happy Earth Day! I love the Earth. It is full of all of my favorite people, amazing animals, plants, creatures and places. It is also the inspiration for almost all of my poetry (I’m looking at you, stars!). Poetry is a great way to celebrate it. Two of my favorite poems that celebrate the Earth are The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry and The Summer Day by Mary Oliver, and there are so many other great poems out there too. I recommend you give them a read and next time you’re outside (which should be soon! It’s good for you.) take a look at the grasshoppers or the sunshine or the clouds and write a little poem about the Earth. Here is one I wrote:
Plant Matter
I look down at my shoes for a moment—
there are grass cracks in the sidewalk,
roots of trees on narrow green strips
push the cement into little mountain ranges.
Their branches climb up around the power lines,
grow mighty and stretch until they darken the street.
The iron fence is slowly but surely melting into the gutter.
At night while I sleep, ivy creeps in through the window
and catches my hair. I have seen clouds that look like lions
and rain that carries away entire towns, but plants
are the strangest things that appear out of thin air.