Walk With Nature30 Nature Poems for National Poetry Month

Chosen and Illustrated by Diane Cordell

“Chapel Pond” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8072219622/

“Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings: communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams. And they will learn that death is stingless And as beautiful as life.” -John Muir, Walk With Nature

“Wonder” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7373048774/

“Light ahead” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8021655881/

“Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;Or surely you'll grow double:Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;Why all this toil and trouble?

Enough of Science and of Art;Close up those barren leaves;Come forth, and bring with you a heartThat watches and receives.” -William Wordsworth, The Tables Turned

“Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day; And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here All simply in the springing of the year.”

-Robert Frost, A Prayer in Spring

“Spring Beauties” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6876106812/

“Nothing is so beautiful as Spring – When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing...” -Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring

“Robin’s egg” by dmcordellhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5923096685/

“Light” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5705143886/

“A Light exists in SpringNot present on the Year

At any other period -When March is scarcely here”

-Emily Dickinson, A Light Exists In Spring

“A toadstool comes up in a night, Learn the lesson, little folk:

An oak grows on a hundred years, But then it is an oak.”

-Christina Georgina Rossetti, A Toadstool Comes Up In A Night

“Fairy Ring” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4706604680/

"A small speckled visitorWearing a crimson cape

Brighter than a cherrySmaller than a grape

A polka-dotted someoneWalking on my wallA black-hooded ladyIn a scarlet shawl."

-Joan Walsh Anglund, Ladybug

“A Polka-dotted Someone” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7310609252/

“Wee wings and eyes,Wild blue gemmy dragon-flies...” -Louise Imogen Guiney, Down Stream

“Delight” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7711640198/

“Wild Strawberry” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7161074849/

"Strawberries that in gardens growAre plump and juicy fine,

But sweeter far as wise men knowSpring from the woodland vine."

-Robert Graves, Wild Strawberries

"You are made of almost nothingBut of enoughTo be great eyesAnd diaphanous double vans;To be ceaseless movement,Unending hunger...”

"...I want to believe I am lookinginto the white fire of a great mystery.I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing --that the light is everything -- that it is more than the sumof each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do." -Mary Oliver, The Ponds

“White Fire” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7516918648/

“The air is like a butterflyWith frail blue wings.

The happy earth looks at the skyAnd sings.”

-Joyce Kilmer, Joy

“Ferns along the bank” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5805661647/

“The Visitor” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5575347697/

“I had a penny,A bright new penny,

I took my pennyTo the market square.

I wanted a rabbit,A little brown rabbit,

And I looked for a rabbit'Most everywhere.”-A. A. Milne, Market Square

“Furu ike yakawazu tobikomu

mizu no oto”- Matsuo Bashô, Frog Haiku

“The Frog Prince” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5662493656/

“The old pond;a frog jumps in -

the sound of the water”-Translated by R.H. Blyth.

“The sea at Dorado” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5498471966/

“I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.”

-John Masefield, Sea Fever

“I gathered shells upon the sand,Each shell a little perfect thing,So frail, yet potent to withstand

The mountain-waves' wild buffeting.”

-Edith Nesbit, Sea-Shells

“Conch curl” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5494812545/

“Honey Run Falls” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4780452214/

“Smooth to the shelving brink a copious floodRolls fair and placid...

And falling fast from gradual slope to slope,With wild infracted course, and lessen'd roar,

It gains a safer bed, and steals, at last,Along the mazes of a quiet vale.”

-James Thomson, Waterfall

“After the Rain” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8106206776/

"It ain't no use to grumble and complain;It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice;When God sorts out the weather and sends rain,Why, rain's my choice." - James Whitcomb Riley, Wet-weather Talk

“Spangled” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4606920868/

“God, when you chiseled a raindrop,How did you think of a stem,

Bearing a lovely satin leafTo hold the tiny gem?

How did you know a million dropsWould deck the morning's hem?”

-Angela Morgan, God the Artist

“Birch” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5226895843/

"I have heard the sunset song of the birches,A white melody in the silence...”-Stephen Maria Crane, I have heard the sunset song of the birches

“Great Blue Heron” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6109067257/

“The heron is the exact blue of the shadows the sun makes of trees on water.

When you hold the heron most clearly in your eye, you are least certain it is there.” -John Engles, Danselfly, Trout, Heron

“Oh, good gigantic smile o' the brown old earth, This autumn morning! How he sets his bones

To bask i' the sun, and thrusts out knees and feet

For the ripple to run over in its mirth...”

-Robert Browning, Among the Rocks

“A walk in the woods near Butler Pond” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5172607918/

“The forest holds high carnival to-day,And every hill-side glows with gold and fire;

Ivy and sumac dress in colors gay,And oak and maple mask in bright attire.

The hoarded wealth of sober autumn daysIn lavish mood for motley garb is spent,And nature for the while at folly plays,

Knowing the morrow brings a snowy Lent.” -Ellis Parker Butler, October

“Beaver Pond Road” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5094225417/

“Nest” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8139631898/

"...Woven basket of a saint sent back to life as a bird who proceeded to make a mess of things. Wind right through it, and any eggs long vanished. But in my hand it was intricate pleasure, even the thorny reeds softened in the weave..." - Marianne Boruch, Nest

“...a cluster of open milkweed podsbrown flat seeds, a ball of cotton candy silkwaiting for the wind, to catch the currents

to fly like gossamer sails across the blue fall skytwirl and arc heavenward...”-Raymond A. Foss, Waiting for the Wind

“Milkweed seeds” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8072204431/

“Roots” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6936481369/

“ All the complicated detailsof the attiring and

the disattiring are completed...Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winterthe wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.” -William Carlos Williams, Winter Trees

“Icing” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8197007121/

“The white of the dusting of snowlingers in the shadows, on the fallen leaves,the cooler spots in the yard,in the lee of the shrubs, the crooks of the branchesin subtle and still ways, remaininga little longer, cooling the world,providing fringe and accentbefore the sameness of winter...” - Raymond A. Foss, Winter Coming

“Squirrel tracks” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6798035307/

“Chitter, chatter,Scold, scoldGray squirrels scoot,Through winter's cold.Over ice,Over snow,Leaving footprintsAs they go.”-Marie Cecchini, Squirrel Tracks

“Wings” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/3442866484/

"If I had wings I would touch the fingertips of clouds and glide on the wind’s breath.If I had wings I would taste a chunk of the sun as hot as peppered curry.If I had wings I would listen to the clouds of sheep bleatthat graze on the blue.If I had wings I would breathe deep and sniff the scent of raindrops.If I had wings I would gaze at the people who cling to the earth.If I had wings I would dream of swimming the deserts and walking the seas." -Pie Corbett, If I Had Wings

“We dream that all white butterflies above, Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love, And leave their lady mistress in despair, To flit to flowers, as kinder and more fair, Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies Flutter, and float, and change to butterflies.” -Victor Hugo, The Genesis of Butterflies

“In My Own Time” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6056551063/

"The beauty of the trees,the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, speaks to me.The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, speaks to me. The faintness of the stars, the trail of the sun, the strength of fire, and the life that nevergoes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars." - Chief Dan George

“Darkness and Light” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6340625757/

Diane Cordell@dmcordell

What I'm Thinking: http://dmcordell.blogspot.com/What I'm Tweeting: http://twitter.com/dmcordellMy Photos: http://www.flickr.com/dmcordell/My Slidedecks http://www.slideshare.net/diane/presentations My Pinterest Boards http://pinterest.com/dmcordell/My RebelMouse Aggregator https://www.rebelmouse.com/dmcordell/

“Snow-covered beaver lodge” by Jackie Cordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5454831056/