Poetry / Reading / Writing

National Poetry Months: Writing Wild, Day 13

Catherine Flynn16 Comments

Unlike many of the authors profiled in Writing Wild, Diane Ackerman is very familiar to me. I have loved her writing since I first found A Natural History of the Senses in a bookstore thirty years ago. Kathryn Aalto calls Ackerman “nature writing’s Aphrodite: a historian and poet whose eloquent and iridescent words render complex subjects understandable and approachable.” (p. 133) Exactly.

Today’s poem is another Golden Shovel. Ackerman’s work is so quotable, it seemed like a natural fit. Ackerman’s first book was The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral. As some of you know, the mysteries of space are a passion of mine, so deciding on a cosmic theme for today’s poem also seemed natural.

“Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table of the heart.”

Diane Ackerman, reading at The Universe in Verse, 2018
Photo by Jerry Zhang on Unsplash

Previous Writing Wild posts:

Day 1: Dorothy Wordsworth
Day 2: Susan Fenimore Cooper
Day 3: Gene Stratton-Porter
Day 4: Mary Austin
Day 5: Vita Sackville-West
Day 6: Nan Shepherd
Day 7: Rachel Carson
Day 8: Mary Oliver
Day 9: Carolyn Merchant
Day 10: Annie Dillard
Day 11: Gretel Ehrlich
Day 12: Leslie Marmon Silko

16 thoughts on “National Poetry Months: Writing Wild, Day 13”

  1. It’s difficult to bypass Ackerman’s writing. I love her, too, Catherine. The quote is wonderful yet you’ve managed to broaden it to our own earthly experiences, right from the dinner table! Lovely!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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