Poetry / Reading / Writing

National Poetry Month: Writing Wild, Day 21

Catherine Flynn12 Comments

Today’s featured author, Andrea Wulf, wrote one of my favorite books of all time. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humbolt’s New World (2015) is a breathtaking introduction to a man Wulf calls the inventor of “the web of life, the concept of nature as we know it today.” (Wulf, p. 6) In 2015, Wulf explained to Science Friday host Ira Flatow that “we have to use our imagination and emotion to understand nature,” and that we owe this understanding to Alexander von Humbolt.

I’ve written another Golden Shovel today from a statement Andrea Wulf made during her 2015 interview on Science Friday. She said, “you can only protect nature if you really love nature.” That statement has been the driving force behind this project, and I feel certain it was the driving force behind Kathryn Aalto‘s creation of Writing Wild. I searched my memory for a time when my love of nature was palpable, and recalled the morning I spotted this stunning spider’s web. It was only as I was working on the poem that I remembered Wulf’s words and decided I had chosen the right topic for today’s poem.

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
Day 13: Diane Ackerman
Day 14: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Day 15: Lauret Savoy
Day 16: Rebecca Solnit
Day 17: Kathleen Jamie
Day 18: Carolyn Finney
Day 19: Helen Macdonald
Day 20: Saci Lloyd

12 thoughts on “National Poetry Month: Writing Wild, Day 21”

  3. It’s enough love for all our earth just in those words. I saw some of those ‘spangled with mist’ early in the am at Highlights often, another good memory from there.

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  4. It is a glorious sight those dew kissed webs so early in the morning. They are later almost hidden from view, nature’s camouflage protection? While there is much I love about nature I do not believe i enjoy it in person as much as you, yet I have a reverence for it and certainly extreme delight in a wide variety of aspects just not all. I am grateful to my parents who took us all over the country as children camping in mostly state and national parks, heading to Ranger talks at night and guided hikes in the day. Coast to coast, north to south and everywhere in between. My parents wanted us to have experiences so we would love our country’s beauty and breadth, honor the natural landscape and recognize the value of being to true to the land and family and love. I feel very blessed for these lessons. However bears, snakes and mountain lions scare me. I should reflect more on the abundant travels we took. I always knew I was lucky. We tented then had camper trailers but it was nothing fancy and we were not allowed to buy souvenirs. Expenditures were carefully planned and my wise parents new the value of teaching us not to expect every glitzy thing we might desire. So, lessons from nature abound. Thank you for helping me to think about the lessons and how they affect me now.

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  6. […] Day 1: Dorothy WordsworthDay 2: Susan Fenimore CooperDay 3: Gene Stratton-PorterDay 4: Mary AustinDay 5: Vita Sackville-WestDay 6: Nan ShepherdDay 7: Rachel CarsonDay 8: Mary OliverDay 9: Carolyn MerchantDay 10: Annie DillardDay 11: Gretel EhrlichDay 12: Leslie Marmon SilkoDay 13: Diane AckermanDay 14: Robin Wall KimmererDay 15: Lauret SavoyDay 16: Rebecca SolnitDay 17: Kathleen JamieDay 18: Carolyn FinneyDay 19: Helen MacdonaldDay 20: Saci LloydDay 21: Andrea Wulf […]

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