Poetry is a great resource for making kids aware of the beauty of their natural world. I could share hundreds of poems on this, as nature is fodder for poets, so choosing is hard. Here are a few favorites.
The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination, with poems selected by Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston, is a stunning collection of nature poetry and information. The book includes a CD where many of the selected poets read their own works. Footnotes accompany many of the poems. These include explications of both the content and form of the poem. There is also a glossary of scientific and poetic terms, as well as a brief biography of the included poets. This is one of my favorite science poetry collections.The World
by Mary Oliver
I would like to write a poem about the world that has in it
nothing fancy.
But it seems impossible.
Whatever the subject, the morning sun
glimmers it.
The tulip feels the heat and flaps its petals open
and becomes a star.
The ants bore into the peony bud and there is a dark
pinprick well of sweetness.
As for the stones on the beach, forget it.
Each one could be set in gold.
So I tried with my eyes shut, but of course the birds
were singing.
And the aspen trees were shaking the sweetest music
out of their leaves.
And that was followed by, guess what, a momentous and
beautiful silence
as comes to all of us, in little earfuls, if we’re not too
hurried to hear it.
As for spiders, how the dew hangs in their webs
even if they say nothing, or seem to say nothing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe they sing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe the stars sing too,
and the ants, and the peonies, and the warm stones,
so happy to be where they are, on the beach, instead of being
locked up in gold.
Poem © Mary Oliver. All rights reserved.
Migration
In the treetops, in the bushes,
there are new songs and colors.
The little birds are back!
The've flown so far!
Over forests, mountains, deserts, seas—
such a long, long way to get back to us.
Yet here they are,
bright and alive, fluttering, singing,
ready for spring.
Poem © Nicola Davies. All rights reserved.
Organized by season, the pages contain a wealth of information about bird watching, bird identification, and behavior. Here's the journal entry and poem that give the book its title.
March 26 - I saw a cardinal & a robin perched in the same young maple, both singing.
The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound
The robin makes a laughing sound.
It makes me stop and look around
to see just what the robin sees—
fresh new leaves on twigs of trees,
a strong high branch on which to rest,
a safe, dry ledge to hold its nest.
The robin makes a laughing sound.
I stop. I always look around.
Poem ©Sallie Wolf. All rights reserved.
Green Mother Goose
Together we’ll do it—
We’ll help save the Earth,
Our emerald home,
The place of our birth.
Come now, rhyme with me,
Let’s turn our hearts loose,
And fly ‘round the world
With Green Mother Goose.
The rhymes cover a range of topics, including solar energy, reusable shopping bags, carpooling, organic gardening, replacing incandescent lightbulbs, and much more. Here's one more example.
Sister Moon and Brother Sun
Sister Moon and Brother Sun,
Bless our world when day is done.
Four gentle prayers for Mother Earth,
Four angels round her head:
One for sun and one for rain
And two to heal the Earth again.
Poems ©Jan Peck and David Davis. All rights reserved.
National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry: More than 200 Poems With Photographs That Float, Zoom, and Bloom! (2015), edited by J. Patrick Lewis, is a collection of classic and contemporary poems that celebrate the variety of life and landscapes on Earth. This is also one of my favorite collection of poems celebrating nature and science.from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
by George Gordon, Lord Byron
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.
(You can read the canto this excerpt came from at Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: Canto the Fourth. Scroll down to CLXXVIII.)
I'll close today with two favorites from Emily Dickinson. These can be found in Emily Dickinson, Complete Poems (1924).
LX
The grass so little has to do,—
A sphere of simple green,
With only butterflies to brood,
And bees to entertain,
And stir all day to pretty tunes
The breezes fetch along,
And hold the sunshine in its lap
And bow to everything;
And thread the dews all night, like pearls,
And make itself so fine,—
A duchess were too common
For such a noticing.
And even when it dies, to pass
In odors so divine,
As lowly spices gone to sleep,
Or amulets of pine.
And then to dwell in sovereign barns,
And dream the days away,—
The grass so little has to do,
I wish I were a hay!
from Part Five: The Single Hound
XXXIV
Nature is what we see,
The Hill, the Afternoon—
Squirrel, Eclipse, the Bumble-bee,
Nay—Nature is Heaven.
Nature is what we hear,
The Bobolink, the Sea—
Thunder, the Cricket—
Nay,—Nature is Harmony.
Nature is what we know
But have no art to say,
So impotent our wisdom is
To Her simplicity.
That's it for today. I hope you'll join me tomorrow for our next celebration.
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