Verses and images for National Poetry Month.

1. Walk With Nature
30 Nature Poems for National Poetry Month
Chosen and Illustrated
by Diane Cordell
“Chapel Pond” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8072219622/

2. “Wonder” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7373048774/
“Let children walk with nature,
let them see the beautiful
blendings:
communions of death and life,
their joyous inseparable unity,
as taught in woods and meadows,
plains and mountains
and streams.
And they will learn that death
is stingless
And as beautiful as life.”
-John Muir, Walk With Nature

3. “Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.”
-William Wordsworth, The Tables Turned
“Light ahead” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8021655881/

4. “Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.”
-Robert Frost, A Prayer in Spring
“Spring Beauties” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6876106812/

5. “Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing...”
-Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring
“Robin’s egg” by dmcordellhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5923096685/

6. “Light” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5705143886/
“A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period -
When March is scarcely here”
-Emily Dickinson, A Light Exists In Spring

7. “A toadstool comes up in a night,
Learn the lesson, little folk:
An oak grows on a hundred years,
But then it is an oak.”
-Christina Georgina Rossetti, A Toadstool Comes Up In A Night
“Fairy Ring” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4706604680/

8. "A small speckled visitor
Wearing a crimson cape
Brighter than a cherry
Smaller than a grape
A polka-dotted someone
Walking on my wall
A black-hooded lady
In a scarlet shawl."
-Joan Walsh Anglund, Ladybug
“A Polka-dotted Someone” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7310609252/

9. “Delight” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7711640198/
“Wee wings and eyes,
Wild blue gemmy dragon-flies...”
-Louise Imogen Guiney, Down Stream

10. “Wild Strawberry” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7161074849/
"Strawberries that in gardens grow
Are plump and juicy fine,
But sweeter far as wise men know
Spring from the woodland vine."
-Robert Graves, Wild Strawberries

11. "You are made of almost nothing
But of enough
To be great eyes
"...I want to believe I am looking
into Andwhite fire of a great mystery.
the diaphanous double vans;
I want to believe that movement,
To be ceaseless the imperfections are nothing --
that Unending hunger...” -- that it is more than the sum
the light is everything
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do."
-Mary Oliver, The Ponds
“White Fire” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/7516918648/

12. “The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings.”
-Joyce Kilmer, Joy
“Ferns along the bank” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5805661647/

13. “I had a penny,
A bright new penny,
I took my penny
To the market square.
I wanted a rabbit,
A little brown rabbit,
And I looked for a rabbit
'Most everywhere.”
-A. A. Milne, Market Square
“The Visitor” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5575347697/

14. “Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto”
- Matsuo Bashô, Frog Haiku
“The old pond;
a frog jumps in -
the sound of the water”
-Translated by R.H. Blyth.
“The Frog Prince” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5662493656/

15. “I must go down to the seas again, for the
call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not
be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white
clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.”
-John Masefield, Sea Fever
“The sea at Dorado” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5498471966/

16. “I gathered shells upon the sand,
Each shell a little perfect thing,
So frail, yet potent to withstand
The mountain-waves' wild
buffeting.”
-Edith Nesbit, Sea-Shells
“Conch curl” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5494812545/

17. “Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood
Rolls fair and placid...
And falling fast from gradual slope to slope,
With wild infracted course, and lessen'd roar,
It gains a safer bed, and steals, at last,
Along the mazes of a quiet vale.”
-James Thomson, Waterfall
“Honey Run Falls” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4780452214/

18. “After the Rain” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8106206776/
"It ain't no use to grumble and complain;
It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice;
When God sorts out the weather and sends rain,
Why, rain's my choice."
- James Whitcomb Riley, Wet-weather Talk

19. “God, when you chiseled a raindrop,
How did you think of a stem,
Bearing a lovely satin leaf
To hold the tiny gem?
How did you know a million drops
Would deck the morning's hem?”
-Angela Morgan, God the Artist
“Spangled” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4606920868/

20. “Birch” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5226895843/
"I have heard the sunset song of the birches,
A white melody in the silence...”
-Stephen Maria Crane, I have heard the sunset song of the birches

21. “The heron
is the exact blue of the shadows
the sun makes of trees on water.
When you hold the heron most clearly
in your eye, you are least certain
it is there.”
-John Engles, Danselfly, Trout, Heron
“Great Blue Heron” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6109067257/

22. “Oh, good gigantic smile
o' the brown old earth,
This autumn morning!
How he sets his bones
To bask i' the sun,
and thrusts out knees and feet
For the ripple to run over
in its mirth...”
-Robert Browning, Among the Rocks
“A walk in the woods near Butler Pond” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5172607918/

23. “The forest holds high carnival to-day,
And every hill-side glows with gold and fire;
Ivy and sumac dress in colors gay,
And oak and maple mask in bright attire.
The hoarded wealth of sober autumn days
In lavish mood for motley garb is spent,
And nature for the while at folly plays,
Knowing the morrow brings a snowy Lent.”
-Ellis Parker Butler, October
“Beaver Pond Road” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5094225417/

24. “Nest” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8139631898/
"...Woven basket
of a saint
sent back to life as a bird
who proceeded to make
a mess of things. Wind
right through it, and any eggs
long vanished.
But in my hand it was
intricate pleasure,
even the thorny reeds
softened in the weave..."
- Marianne Boruch, Nest

25. “Milkweed seeds” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8072204431/
“...a cluster of open milkweed pods
brown flat seeds, a ball of cotton candy silk
waiting for the wind, to catch the currents
to fly like gossamer sails across the blue fall sky
twirl and arc heavenward...”
-Raymond A. Foss, Waiting for the Wind

26. “ All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed...
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.”
-William Carlos Williams, Winter Trees
“Roots” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6936481369/

27. “Icing” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/8197007121/
“The white of the dusting of snow
lingers in the shadows, on the fallen leaves,
the cooler spots in the yard,
in the lee of the shrubs, the crooks
of the branches
in subtle and still ways, remaining
a little longer, cooling the world,
providing fringe and accent
before the sameness of winter...”
- Raymond A. Foss, Winter Coming

28. “Chitter, chatter,
Scold, scold
Gray squirrels scoot,
Through winter's cold.
Over ice,
Over snow,
Leaving footprints
As they go.”
-Marie Cecchini, Squirrel Tracks
“Squirrel tracks” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6798035307/

29. "If I had wings I would touch the fingertips of clouds
and glide on the wind’s breath.
If I had wings I would taste a chunk of the sun
as hot as peppered curry.
If I had wings I would listen to the clouds of sheep bleat
that graze on the blue.
If I had wings I would breathe deep
and sniff the scent of raindrops.
If I had wings I would gaze at the people
who cling to the earth.
If I had wings I would dream
of swimming the deserts
and walking the seas."
-Pie Corbett, If I Had Wings
“Wings” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/3442866484/

30. “We dream that all white butterflies above,
Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love,
And leave their lady mistress in despair,
To flit to flowers, as kinder and more fair,
Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies
Flutter, and float, and change to butterflies.”
-Victor Hugo, The Genesis of Butterflies
“In My Own Time” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6056551063/

31. "The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars,
the trail of the sun,
the strength of fire,
and the life that never
goes away,
they speak to me.
And my heart soars."
- Chief Dan George
“Darkness and Light” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6340625757/

32. Diane Cordell
@dmcordell
What I'm Thinking: http://dmcordell.blogspot.com/
What I'm Tweeting: http://twitter.com/dmcordell
My Photos: http://www.flickr.com/dmcordell/
My Slidedecks http://www.slideshare.net/diane/presentations
My Pinterest Boards http://pinterest.com/dmcordell/
My RebelMouse Aggregator https://www.rebelmouse.com/dmcordell/
“Snow-covered beaver lodge” by Jackie Cordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5454831056/