Hello! I am trying to reconnect with my love of poetry, I read a good amount back in college. I love modern poetry that focuses on various elements of identity and social systems: Claudia Rankine, Danez Smith, Erin Marie Lynch, Joy Harjo. But I’m having a hard time finding other kinds of poetry. Not necessarily non-political or absent of race/gender, but poetry with a focus on nature. Much of Whitman’s work springs to mind, or the classic haikus of Kobayashi Issa.
Does anyone have nature poetry they can recommend? I’d love to find some poets currently working, but classics are also ok. And if anyone wants to recommend poetry that isn’t about nature, but might fill a different niche, I’m all ears. I’m considering trying some Billy Collins.
by Bird-Boy-Doodlin
8 Comments
I recommend Wendell Berry’s _New Collected Poems._
Also, Marge Piercy wrote some beautiful nature poems among her sociopolitical stuff.
Louise Gluck’s “The Wild Iris” is a marvelous contemporary option. (I do adore Billy Collins and you should definitely read his work! But I wouldn’t classify him as a nature poet.)
Roo Borson I love for that!
Though he died in the 1980s so might not quite fit the bill, one of my favorites is Eugenio Montale. Opinions on the translations vary (I enjoyed Jonathan Galassi, but I think Arrowsmith is generally preferred). His natural imagery is lovely and at times veers political.
William Blake’s poetry is often about nature (the songs of innocence and experience is a great place to start) and they’re very beautiful.
Ted Hughes focused pretty squarely on nature, especially its “red in tooth and claw” aspects.
Anything by Mary Oliver
I liked *Firekeeper: Selected Poems* by Pattiann Rogers a lot. She’s 83 now, so this collection has poems from several decades of her career, almost all of them being nature-related.