POETRY ABOUT NATURE
Nature has always inspired great poems. Here are a couple of favorite poetry books that focus on the natural world.
Shape Me A Rhyme, written by Jane Yolen with photographs by Jason Stemple. A gem of a book, it’s greatness is in it’s simplicity. Through each poem and the perfectly complementary pictures, shapes in nature are revealed. Each 2-page spread has one poem, set within a simple outline of the shape that the poem is featuring, and illustrated with striking images. Other words that are related or synonymous to the main word for the shape are scattered across the pages in differing fonts. This is a lovely book to share with younger children, followed by an outing to look for shapes in nature.
Oval
An oval
fits eggs-actly
inside
an airy nest
so it can nestle
tight against
its mother’s
feathered breast.
Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems, written by Kristine O’Connell George and illustrated by Kate Kiesler. Each poem in this collection effectively carries the reader into it’s point of view – sometimes child, sometimes tree, sometimes animal. In turns serious, thoughtful, silly, imaginative, all of these poems inspire appreciation and wonder for the natural world, especially trees. Illustrated with warm oil paintings that capture the mood of each poem, this is a book to return to again and again.
