Reading and writing poems about the natural world can invite a deeper relationship with the earth and teach us so much about what it means to be alive. In this 45-minute webinar-style thoughtshop, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer shares poems about the natural world and its flora and fauna—poems that help us pay attention, or as Rumi would say, open the sail, so we can keep our hearts and heads where our bodies are, returning us to the present moment again and again. With each poem she shares and discusses, Rosemerry offers prompts for participants to write their own poems that explore their relationships to the world around them. Hosted by SHFYT at Mile High on June 22, 2022.
The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac (Part 3)
—Mary Oliver
from Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (Penguin, 2020)
—Sharon Corcoran
from The Two Worlds: Poems (Middle Creek Publishing and Audio, 2021)
—José A. Alcántara
from The Bitten World (Tebot Bach, 2021)
—Louise Gluck
from Wild Iris (Ecco, 1993)
—Teresita Fernández
from Breaking the Silences: An Anthology of 20th Century Poetry by Cuban Women (Pulp Press Book Publishers 1982)
Song for the Turtles in the Gulf
—Linda Hogan
from Dark. Sweet.: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2014)
On Another Panel About Climate, They Ask Me to Sell the Future and All I’ve Got Is a Love Poem
—Ayisha Siddiqa
published on On Being (June 10, 2022)
—Jane Hirshfield
from Lives of the Heart (Harper Perennial, 1997)
—Kwame Dawes
from Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2013)
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
first published in Reformed Journal, June 14, 2022