Poetry Friday: The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry is out now!

Oh, happy day! (Actually, happy week!) The fifth book to which I have contributed this year hit stores just a few days ago…and it’s something!

Former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis has followed up his National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry (National Geographic Kids, 2012) with this brand-new anthology filled with bright, bold National Geographic photos – and I’m so proud to be able to be a part of it. It’s also a thrill seeing so many of my fellow writer friends’ names inside, too!

There are classic poems from some of literature’s most esteemed poets like Frost, Wordsworth, Dickenson, and Thoreau, as well as new poems from contemporary poets like Billy Collins, Jane Yolen, and Lewis himself. Pat has also included a number of poems from writers who are, at best, virtual unknowns (e.g., Yours Truly) – a fact for which I shall be eternally grateful.

One great example of the balance of established writer / emerging writer (which I suppose is a better term than “virtual unknown,” yes?) that you will see on these pages is below. I had no idea my poem, “Rainbow Eucalyptus,” was going to be paired with one from my friend Charles Ghigna, but it was a pleasant surprise, indeed:

© 2015 National Geographic Society, Charles Ghigna, and Matt Forrest Esenwine; all rights reserved. (click to enlarge)

A large, beautiful coffee table book, The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry (National Geographic Kids, 2015) is available now at bookstores everywhere, so be sure to pick up a copy!

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Also be sure to stop by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s The Poem Farm for all of today’s Poetry Friday links and fun. (Amy is also a contributor to this book, with a poem about Arizona’s Petrified Forest)

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