Laying on the ground looking up at the sky, either at the clouds or at the stars, one is often put into an almost meditative state. The same is true for someone sitting in a field looking at rows upon rows of flowers or someone watching as a stream flows. No matter where you are or what mood you are in, nature has a way of affecting you every time. Often, nature leads to one being in a state of mind that elicits thought, appreciation, and reflection. Periods of time in this state of mind are incredibly important to a person remaining mentally healthy and happy.
For this reason, I have compiled poems with two main purposes in mind. First, I have selected poems that remind the reader of the importance and power of nature to place us into this state of mind. These poems often create this message through the musings of either a character or the narrator of the poem if one is present. The imagery present in these poems is used to place the reader into the scene or location that the character or narrator finds to be calming and thoughtful. These places are seen as a sort of safe haven from the anxiety of life in society; one is able to escape in nature. In the case of some of the poems, this release from society is pushed beyond the elevation of yourself from simply stress to the elevation of oneself in the spiritual sense. Nature is seen as a cleansing entity for the soul and the mind. While not all of the poems relate to the spiritual aspect of nature, the poems serve as a reminder to the audience of the opportunity nature presents to people to escape everyday life.
Furthermore, I have selected poems that describe nature in such a way that the reader is transported to a place where they can be put into a positive state of mind. These poems focus on creating imagery and metaphors that allow the reader to experience nature almost as though they were in it. Visualizing the scenery created by the author, the reader is able to appreciate and fall into the nature that the author is portraying throughout the poem. The first type of poems I selected act as a sort of flyer to a reader by introducing and attracting the reader to the concept of losing oneself in nature while the second type of poem I selected acts more as a guided tour or video tour of nature and the opportunities nature holds. In either case, the poems serve as a method for informing the reader of the benefits of enveloping oneself in nature.
What attracted me to the beauty and power of nature at first was the idea that nature is timeless. From astronomers to geologists to bird watchers, people everywhere have been observing nature for as long as civilization has existed. Nature has been the basis for society and the foundation for people's lives all over the world; people instinctually settle down near bodies of water, fertile ground, and lush environments. There is a reason that someone's instincts are usually described as what that person would naturally do: people are defined by the nature that surrounds them. Therefore, as we progress farther and farther into the technological age and the age of humans transforming there surroundings with endless infrastructure, it is important to remember the roots of our world and realize the importance role that nature plays. One way that this can be accomplished is through poetry and the messages they have for their readers. Furthermore, in examining and selecting poems with the theme of the beauty and power of nature, I noticed that the theme can be found in abundance in poems from time periods throughout the past several centuries. Nature is not something that was discovered and then forgotten about; nature is all encompassing and has surrounded everyone throughout history.
My interest in the theme of the beauty of nature was extended a trip to Olympic National Park in Washington. Isolated from internet and television, I was allowed to absorb nature in its fullest and purest form. There was no longer any rush to do anything or any social concerns; line was in my hands and my hands alone. Tension and stress were released, and I was able to feel a greater sense of relaxation than I had in many years. Experiencing this for myself, I felt a responsibility and urge to share the power that nature has with others so that others could learn about and experience nature for themselves. This compilation of poems is aimed in doing just that: informing people about the benefits of enveloping oneself in nature.
With this in mind, as you read through the poems in the anthology, you should focus on the ability of nature to relax people. As you progress through the works, you can attempt to lose yourself in the descriptions that the various authors provide. By doing this, you can experience nature in the shoes of the author through visualization. Additionally, you should attempt to relax as you read the poems; instead of thinking about your life and society while you read the poems, try to let your mind wander and explore the worlds in the poems without reality pressing down on you. Finally, when you read these poems, you can imagine it as a journey into nature rather than simply the reading of poems. This is allow you to fully submerge yourself into the beauty of nature. With these thoughts in mind, I invite you to explore the following poems in the hopes that you can come to appreciate the power of beauty of nature for yourself.
For this reason, I have compiled poems with two main purposes in mind. First, I have selected poems that remind the reader of the importance and power of nature to place us into this state of mind. These poems often create this message through the musings of either a character or the narrator of the poem if one is present. The imagery present in these poems is used to place the reader into the scene or location that the character or narrator finds to be calming and thoughtful. These places are seen as a sort of safe haven from the anxiety of life in society; one is able to escape in nature. In the case of some of the poems, this release from society is pushed beyond the elevation of yourself from simply stress to the elevation of oneself in the spiritual sense. Nature is seen as a cleansing entity for the soul and the mind. While not all of the poems relate to the spiritual aspect of nature, the poems serve as a reminder to the audience of the opportunity nature presents to people to escape everyday life.
Furthermore, I have selected poems that describe nature in such a way that the reader is transported to a place where they can be put into a positive state of mind. These poems focus on creating imagery and metaphors that allow the reader to experience nature almost as though they were in it. Visualizing the scenery created by the author, the reader is able to appreciate and fall into the nature that the author is portraying throughout the poem. The first type of poems I selected act as a sort of flyer to a reader by introducing and attracting the reader to the concept of losing oneself in nature while the second type of poem I selected acts more as a guided tour or video tour of nature and the opportunities nature holds. In either case, the poems serve as a method for informing the reader of the benefits of enveloping oneself in nature.
What attracted me to the beauty and power of nature at first was the idea that nature is timeless. From astronomers to geologists to bird watchers, people everywhere have been observing nature for as long as civilization has existed. Nature has been the basis for society and the foundation for people's lives all over the world; people instinctually settle down near bodies of water, fertile ground, and lush environments. There is a reason that someone's instincts are usually described as what that person would naturally do: people are defined by the nature that surrounds them. Therefore, as we progress farther and farther into the technological age and the age of humans transforming there surroundings with endless infrastructure, it is important to remember the roots of our world and realize the importance role that nature plays. One way that this can be accomplished is through poetry and the messages they have for their readers. Furthermore, in examining and selecting poems with the theme of the beauty and power of nature, I noticed that the theme can be found in abundance in poems from time periods throughout the past several centuries. Nature is not something that was discovered and then forgotten about; nature is all encompassing and has surrounded everyone throughout history.
My interest in the theme of the beauty of nature was extended a trip to Olympic National Park in Washington. Isolated from internet and television, I was allowed to absorb nature in its fullest and purest form. There was no longer any rush to do anything or any social concerns; line was in my hands and my hands alone. Tension and stress were released, and I was able to feel a greater sense of relaxation than I had in many years. Experiencing this for myself, I felt a responsibility and urge to share the power that nature has with others so that others could learn about and experience nature for themselves. This compilation of poems is aimed in doing just that: informing people about the benefits of enveloping oneself in nature.
With this in mind, as you read through the poems in the anthology, you should focus on the ability of nature to relax people. As you progress through the works, you can attempt to lose yourself in the descriptions that the various authors provide. By doing this, you can experience nature in the shoes of the author through visualization. Additionally, you should attempt to relax as you read the poems; instead of thinking about your life and society while you read the poems, try to let your mind wander and explore the worlds in the poems without reality pressing down on you. Finally, when you read these poems, you can imagine it as a journey into nature rather than simply the reading of poems. This is allow you to fully submerge yourself into the beauty of nature. With these thoughts in mind, I invite you to explore the following poems in the hopes that you can come to appreciate the power of beauty of nature for yourself.
The Daffodils
William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
God the Artist
Angela Morgan
God, when you thought of a pine tree,
How did you think of a star?
How did you dream of the Milky Way
To guide us from afar.
How did you think of a clean brown pool
Where flecks of shadows are?
God, when you thought of a cobweb,
How did you think of dew?
How did you know a spider's house
Had shingles bright and new?
How did you know the human folk
Would love them like they do?
God, when you patterned a bird song,
Flung on a silver string,
How did you know the ecstasy
That crystal call would bring?
How did you think of a bubbling throat
And a darling speckled wing?
God, when you chiseled a raindrop,
How did you think of a stem,
Bearing a lovely satin leaf
To hold the tiny gem?
How did you know a million drops
Would deck the morning's hem?
Why did you mate the moonlit night
With the honeysuckle vines?
How did you know Madeira bloom
Distilled ecstatic wines?
How did you weave the velvet disk
Where tangled perfumes are?
God, when you thought of a pine tree,
How did you think of a star?
Song of Nature
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mine are the night and morning,
The pits of air, the gulf of space,
The sportive sun, the gibbous moon,
The innumerable days.
I hid in the solar glory,
I am dumb in the pealing song,
I rest on the pitch of the torrent,
In slumber I am strong.
No numbers have counted my tallies,
No tribes my house can fill,
I sit by the shining Fount of Life,
And pour the deluge still;
And ever by delicate powers
Gathering along the centuries
From race on race the rarest flowers,
My wreath shall nothing miss.
And many a thousand summers
My apples ripened well,
And light from meliorating stars
With firmer glory fell.
I wrote the past in characters
Of rock and fire the scroll,
The building in the coral sea,
The planting of the coal.
And thefts from satellites and rings
And broken stars I drew,
And out of spent and aged things
I formed the world anew;
What time the gods kept carnival,
Tricked out in star and flower,
And in cramp elf and saurian forms
They swathed their too much power.
Time and Thought were my surveyors,
They laid their courses well,
They boiled the sea, and baked the layers
Or granite, marl, and shell.
But he, the man-child glorious,--
Where tarries he the while?
The rainbow shines his harbinger,
The sunset gleams his smile.
My boreal lights leap upward,
Forthright my planets roll,
And still the man-child is not born,
The summit of the whole.
Must time and tide forever run?
Will never my winds go sleep in the west?
Will never my wheels which whirl the sun
And satellites have rest?
Too much of donning and doffing,
Too slow the rainbow fades,
I weary of my robe of snow,
My leaves and my cascades;
I tire of globes and races,
Too long the game is played;
What without him is summer’s pomp,
Or winter’s frozen shade?
I travail in pain for him,
My creatures travail and wait;
His couriers come by squadrons,
He comes not to the gate.
Twice I have moulded an image,
And thrice outstretched my hand,
Made one of day, and one of night,
And one of the salt sea-sand.
One in a Judaean manger,
And one by Avon stream,
One over against the mouths of Nile,
And one in the Academe.
I moulded kings and saviours,
And bards o’er kings to rule;--
But fell the starry influence short,
The cup was never full.
Yet whirl the glowing wheels once more,
And mix the bowl again;
Seethe, fate! the ancient elements,
Heat, cold, wet, dry, and peace, and pain.
Let war and trade and creeds and song
Blend, ripen race on race,
The sunburnt world a man shall breed
Of all the zones, and countless days.
No ray is dimmed, no atom worn,
My oldest force is good as new,
And the fresh rose on yonder thorn
Gives back the bending heavens in dew.
Natural Life
Miranda A.
Take a moment to notice
The beauty of the trees.
Sit and take a look
At the dancing leaves.
Note the little child
Laughing, playing with a toy.
Always so full of energy;
Humongous amounts of joy.
Don't crush the insects,
Who are 1/1000ths of your weight.
They may creep up your path,
But don't decide their fate.
Life's not about avoiding storms.
Instead, dance in the rain.
The Earth is so beautiful;
Why must we cause it pain?
Take time off your busy schedule
To glance at the starry night.
Because nature is genius.
So pretty, such a sight!
I Love a Lonely Winding Road
Alora M Knight
I love a lonely winding road
That takes me where I cannot see
Until each softly rounded hill
Reveals its landscaped mystery.
Where nature's stage creates the plot,
What ever the scene may be.
I love the crocus call in spring,
The first to wake from winter's sleep.
Translucent bits of ivory joy,
So patient under snow banks deep,
'Til they can lift each star like face
And proudly nature's rhythm keep.
I love the fiery autumn hues,
Too harsh to bear in gentle spring
But welcomed by the strident wind
That makes the mighty pine tree sing,
Freeing the crimson leaves that dance
Like bright birds, high on wing.
I love the wonders of this world,
The secrets nature guards so well
From those who have no time to spend,
Who will not lift the ocean's shell
And listen to the murmured tale
That each one has to tell.
Joy of Spring
David Whalen
A Spring morning
A warm Breeze
doves cooing softly
Pollen dusted trees
A few brave violets
A red streaked dawn
A very early robin
Earthworms in the lawn
Spring peeper frogs
Smell of dogwood blossoms
Nature’s petroglyphs in muddy bogs
Footprints left by possums
Easter eggs and bonnets
Chocolate rabbits, Missing ears
Jelly beans and sonnets
Spilled easter baskets, children’s tears
Parades,
leafy bowers
Lemonades
Spring showers
Spring mornings
Warm breezes
Deep breaths
Allergic sneezes
Smell of Fresh blossoms
Sound of birds as they sing
Joy of life.. joy of being…
…Joy of Spring
A Prairie Sunset
Walt Whitman
Shot gold, maroon and violet, dazzling silver,
emerald, fawn,
The earth's whole amplitude and nature's mul-
tiform power consigned for once to colors;
The light, the genial air possessed by them—
colors till now unknown,
No limit, confine—not the Western sky alone—
the high meridian—North, South, all,
Pure luminous color fighting the silent shadows
to the last.
Nature by Stars
Kilrah
I'll climb the highest mountains,
High above the trees,
Drink water from rivers,
And gaze at the stars
While I create my dreams,
Magnified by the scent of flowers.
I really love the scent of flowers,
Especially those found on the high mountains,
The place where we form our dreams.
I used to climb the highest trees,
Trying to reach the stars,
but seeing only, hopeless rivers.
Not that I dislike rivers,
They feed the flowers,
But alas, they do not lead to the stars.
That's why I climb mountains
And ignore the trees.
I will find my dreams.
Then I will be defined by my dreams,
Soothed by humming rivers,
Cooled by the wind in the trees.
I'll be surrounded by the scent of flowers
And loved by the mountains.
Yes, I will reach the stars.
For the stars are my home,
Place of my dreams,
even more than the mountains.
I'll be lead to the mountain by the rivers
And kept alive by the flowers,
Going up and up, guided by the trees.
Shown by the trees,
Is the way to the stars,
Decorated by flowers,
Saluted by my dreams,
Fed by rivers
And crossing mountains.
Maybe even the trees will join the dreams
Set among the stars, flowing in everlasting rivers
Creating images of flowers flourishing on the mountains
An Invitation to Dance
Andrea Dietrich
When fields gleam aureate and song birds sing
and transient stars in clusters scintillate,
when sweet perennials are coaxed by spring
to blossom forth, he comes with sprightly gait.
He wends his way along the mountain trails
past opalescent rush of streams and rills,
goat-footed, on the paths that ribbon dales
and wind around and up and down small hills.
Then nymphs appear as, through the woods, he trips
to flower-smitten meadows. Fancy-free,
he leads them with his reed held to his lips,
till blithely they embrace his rhapsody.
So hear the music; watch the wood nymphs spin. . .
Then captured by sheer merriment, join in!
and transient stars in clusters scintillate,
when sweet perennials are coaxed by spring
to blossom forth, he comes with sprightly gait.
He wends his way along the mountain trails
past opalescent rush of streams and rills,
goat-footed, on the paths that ribbon dales
and wind around and up and down small hills.
Then nymphs appear as, through the woods, he trips
to flower-smitten meadows. Fancy-free,
he leads them with his reed held to his lips,
till blithely they embrace his rhapsody.
So hear the music; watch the wood nymphs spin. . .
Then captured by sheer merriment, join in!
Come Walk With Me
Sandra Haight
Come, walk through the beautiful forest with me,
Enraptured by musical sounds of the wild,
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free.
For children of nature we happen to be,
Made open and free as an innocent child…
Come, walk through the beautiful forest with me,
Enthralled with the wonder of earth’s majesty,
Abandoned with nature where God’s love has smiled,
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free,
Our worldly, dark troubles will magically flee,
Erasing the sorrowful memories filed…
Come, walk through the beautiful forest with me.
Tranquility flows everywhere peacefully
With fragrance of nature, sweet-scented and mild,
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free.
Absorbing the essence of Earth's modesty,
With stillness and beauty of nature compiled,
Come, walk through the beautiful forest with me…
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free.
Enraptured by musical sounds of the wild,
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free.
For children of nature we happen to be,
Made open and free as an innocent child…
Come, walk through the beautiful forest with me,
Enthralled with the wonder of earth’s majesty,
Abandoned with nature where God’s love has smiled,
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free,
Our worldly, dark troubles will magically flee,
Erasing the sorrowful memories filed…
Come, walk through the beautiful forest with me.
Tranquility flows everywhere peacefully
With fragrance of nature, sweet-scented and mild,
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free.
Absorbing the essence of Earth's modesty,
With stillness and beauty of nature compiled,
Come, walk through the beautiful forest with me…
Where life dwells unhindered and gracefully free.
Anthology Video:
https://youtu.be/stAcSY9Mgao