You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World is published with the Library of Congress and edited by the Poet Laureate of the United States, a collection of poems reflecting our relationship with nature, by 50 celebrated contemporary writers.
Each poem engages with the author’s local landscape – from the breath-taking variety of flora in a national park to a lone tree flowering by a bus stop.
Poems are like trees. They let us breathe together. In each line break or stanza, there’s a place for us to breathe. Not unlike a forest, poems can be a place to stop and remember that we too are living.
W.S. Merwin wrote in his poem ‘Place’ that ‘On the last day of the world, I would want to plant a tree’. I think I would add that I would also like to write a poem. Maybe I’d even write a poem about a tree?’
