Poems for a Small Planet

Donna Seaman

Nature has always been the domain of the poet, whether as refuge or proving ground. But how do poets respond to nature now that so much of the earth has been polluted, paved, malled, mined, and littered? Is the natural world still a source of awe, revelation, and romance? Or has joy been overshadowed by concern and wariness? Poets Pack and Parini have collected 250 poems about nature, written over the last decade by 83 American poets. All these works dovetail seamlessly into the great tradition of nature poetry, in spite of their awareness of grim, industrial reality. This rich anthology contains many poems that record close observations of natural habitats, as well as poems that urgently project various moods onto meadows, streams, trees, skies, and mountains; poems that find messages in the signs of the seasons and the progress of storms; and poems that recognize our kinship with other animal species. Amy Clampitt writes of fertility; William Matthews chants extinctions; and Gary Snyder, David Huddle, Dave Smith, Juan Felipe Herrera, and others celebrate, mourn, and ponder our place in the world and the world's place in our soul.