Nature Poems

As I researched Key Words, I discovered that lots of you love nature poems.  You are invited to contribute your own nature poetry, but I'll share the one I wrote yesterday in response to a challenge from Fran Durler, our poet in residence, at the Progress Energy Art Gallery in New Port Richey, Florida. The Gallery offers poetry reading open to the public on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month at 6:30 pm.  


Fran's POETRY CHALLENGE was to find a line of poetry that speaks to you.  Write that line and then go on to make a new poem of your own!  

© Joyful Expressions Photography

The Egret

Eschew the cluster'd herd,

Aloof from raucous flock,

Observe that stoic bird;

White egret by the rock.

Alabaster wings,

Unabashed elegance,

No lovely voice that sings;

His patience is intense.

No famed marble statue

Is ever still as he;

His fishing rendezvous

baited so carefully,

And when at last he strikes,

His beak a deadly spear,

© Joyful Expressions Photography
This image appears in
A Photographer Looks At The Psalms
by Elizabeth Goehringer

High steps precede his flight                   

Off to a new frontier.

Aloft he dazzles sight,

Brilliant against the sky.

Unfurled wings a kite:

Beauty soaring high.

© E. Goehringer 01/25/2012

I chose to model a nature poem by Elinor (Hoyt) Wylie.  She was the granddaughter of the Governor of Pennsylvania, and the daughter of Roosevelt's Solicitor-General.  The poem below was apparently written in the early 1920s. I found it in Modern American Poetry © 1919, 1921 and 1925.


 It sounds as though her message is to soar with the eagles, and avoid grubbing in the ground.  Is that an inspirational word? You decide:)

The Eagle And The Mole

Avoid the reeking herd,

Shun the polluted flock,

Live like that stoic bird,

The eagle of the rock.

The huddled warmth of crowds

Begets and fosters hate;

He keeps, above the clouds,

His cliff inviolate.

When flocks are folded warm,

And herds to shelter run,

He sails above the storm,

He stares into the sun.

If in the eagle's track

Your sinews cannot leap,

Avoid the lathered pack,

Turn from the steaming sheep.

If you would keep your soul

From spotted sight or sound.

Live like the velvet mole;

Go burrow underground.

 And there hold intercourse

With roots of trees and stones,

With rivers at their source,

and disembodied bones.

©Elinor Wylie

I don't really like working from another poet's work, but it was an interesting challenge

with creative results.  And, now I have another nature poem to share with you, and encourage you to share your nature poetry.

 We have eagles in Florida, but of all the Florida birds, I love the graceful egrets best.  They hunt along the lake that borders our side yard.  They are no songbirds.  Their voices are a loud raspy croak, but their patience always amazes me, as they stand and stare, and wait.  We can learn a lot from them!

I am looking for a photo I believe we took of an eagle's nest or perhaps it was an osprey. When I find it (or another that I think we took at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa), I will add it to this page.

I have several nature poems included at this link.