I Am Nature: Environmental Poetry

Poetry from Spiritual Wales

I have often felt a deep spiritual connection with the natural environment. I feel at home and at peace in wild places, exploring woods, hills and shorelines. It’s something the Romantic poet William Wordsworth spoke of in his poetry two centuries ago.

For example, in ‘Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey’, Wordsworth writes:

These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and ’mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart...

Wordsworth and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge were both members of the Lake Poets, enjoying the glorious scenery of the Lake District, among other locations. Nature’s beauty and the spiritual connection they felt with their surroundings define their work.

It was in a similar mood to the Romantic poets that my husband Andrew and I, and our friends Leaf Pettit and Diana Sanders, came together to write a collection of eco poetry called ‘I Am Nature: Environmental Poetry’. It was wonderful to work with such good friends. We all live in North Wales and we’re all passionate about poetry and the environment.

Of course, we could never compare our own writing with the distinguished work of Wordsworth and Coleridge, but like the Romantics, the four of us feel part of the bigger picture. We feel that all living things come from the same source and we are all interconnected and interdependent.

In the following poems, taken from ‘I Am Nature: Environmental Poetry’, you can feel this connection:

 

ENTANGLEMENT

by Leaf Pettit

We are momentary miracles, divinely delivered like October dew drops held in a web, glistening in the morning light. We exist within a gossamer fabric of life fulfilling itself, each of us connected by shimmering golden strands trembling with the frequency of love.

 

SWIMMING IN LLYN TEGID 

by Diana Sanders

step through knot-work roots over water-rounded stones into black silk hands shear through mountains wrinkling permanence of rock broadcasting colour scrambles of ducklings etch Llyn Tegid with yellow as I tread water two mayflies hitch up on a blue electric path between lake and reed lie back, sky-watching feel the comfort of this world as it spins through space

I find it intriguing that both ancient philosophy and modern scientific research speak of a state of interconnectedness or oneness. This is a distinct theme in Buddhism, which teaches us that all life is intertwined and nothing exists in isolation.

In his 1993 Harvard University lecture, Ikeda Sensei said, “Every being functions to create the environment that sustains all other existences. All things are mutually supporting and interrelated, forming a living cosmos...”

In the magazine Aeon, Heinrich Päs, a professor of theoretical physics, wrote an essay called ‘All is One’ and claimed that “the ancient philosophy of monism and the physics of quantum entanglement agree: all that exists is one unified whole”.

In the BBC2 documentary ‘Wonders of the Universe (Messengers)’, Professor Brian Cox said something similar: “We are the cosmos made conscious, and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”

Ultimately, we are all one.

Of course, the world population has increased seven times since Wordsworth and Coleridge were writing poetry, so today it’s only right that we should develop an environmental awareness of a slightly different kind to the Romantics – not just an appreciation of landscape, but a sincere concern for the health of our besieged planet.

With over eight billion people inhabiting Earth, and many caring little about, or even denying, the drastic effect we’re having on the planet, our poetry can no longer just describe the wonders of rural life; we must mourn the loss of so much richness and raise awareness of the environmental problems we have unintentionally created.

However, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s not all despair and regret in our collection of poetry. While we’ve described with great sadness the impact we’ve had on flora and fauna, we also revel in what we have left. Each of us falls in love with nature over and over again, returning to the wild places we know and cherish, enjoying the biodiversity that remains.

Ultimately, we wanted to do something meaningful to raise awareness of both the wonder and fragility of nature.

Diana Sanders, an award-winning poet, musician and composer, said, “I hope this collection of poems will inspire more people to care for the precious and fragile planet that is our home.”

Leaf Pettit, a poet with an MA in Creative Writing, commented, “I have been inspired by the countryside of North Wales since I moved here as a child; it has shaped me as a person, influenced my writing and been a constant source of joy. Each small act to protect our natural world is a positive. Together we can make a difference.”

Andrew Sumner, a landscape architect and environmental consultant, is fascinated by landscape and has an acute sense of place, evident in his poetry:

RECALL

by Andrew Sumner

We walked, my lost friends and I, through the woods.

I swam through sparkling, dazzling, dappled shade,

raised the sap-scent of crushed bluebells and woodland herbs –

my friends raised as memories through the scent of other days when woods in May became our paradise.

Andrew said, “The poetry collection investigates our troubled relationship with nature and the landscape on which we are all so dependent for food, clean water, clean air and our wellbeing and health. We have written about mammals, fish, birds and insects. We reflect on plants, in all their variety, and we mourn their loss, as well the destruction of our rich soil. But we also celebrate the wildlife that remains.”

It was a pleasure for me, Patricia Sumner, to include my own work in ‘I Am Nature: Environmental Poetry’ and to edit the collection. It’s published by Veneficia Publications, and the book is now available to buy from the publisher, from Amazon and from all major bookshops.

Diane Narraway, co-owner of Veneficia Publications, commented, “I Am Nature: Environmental Poetry is more than just beautiful poetry. It’s a walk in a forest on a summer's day or lazy evenings by the riverside. It’s our world, our lives and our hopes and this book reminds us of how fragile as well as how beautiful our environment can be, and how much we need to love and respect the world we call home.”

EASTER AT CLOCAENOG 

by Patricia Sumner

For Beci

Like a sudden pang of pain, the forest overcomes me. Thin hands begging for sustenance, silver branches stretch for sky, buds break from bark, small and raw, strain for meagre light green-filtered by lichen, moss and shadow.

But as nuthatches shout survival from skeleton twigs and woodpeckers beat out nature’s quickening pulse, I know the pain that engulfs me, that pervades the air, is a kind of victory – a re-envisioning of self, a conscious resurrection from winter’s long and desperate dark.

Nature photos by Pat Sumner. Portrait photo by Sue Lloyd.

Links:

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/mebwwkfb

Veneficia Publications: https://www.veneficiapublications.com/product-page/i-am-nature

Photography by Sue Lloyd: https://www.photographybysuelloyd.com/

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Patricia Sumner is a prize-winning poet and children’s author living in North Wales. Previously a primary school teacher specialising in English, Pat now runs her own editing and proofreading business, and teaches creative writing to adults.

As well as two collections of poetry, she has had several children’s books published – picture books, adventure stories, educational books and a new novel.

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