7gen Bloc

It's not enough to fight for the things we believe in. Sometimes we need to stop and think about the origin of the battle. It's only by pausing to renew our passions that we can ever hope to maintain the dedication they demand. That's especially true where the natural world is concerned. We all need to take the time to enjoy it.

A great new book reminds us why we started down the road to a sustainable world in the first place. And it's not just about saving the systems that give us air to breathe and food to eat. The catalyst for the environmental movement was more about sheltering our souls and feeding our spirits.

That's the hidden message inside Can Poetry Save the Earth?: A Field Guide to Nature Poems by John Felstiner. It's a collection of wonderful paeans to nature from wordsmiths throughout the ages, all threaded together with brief but piercing essays that ignite new levels of illumination. The book helps us remember why we invest so much of ourselves in the salvation of the natural world.

The author writes that in our present era of environmental challenge, poetry is uniquely able to help us reawaken our desire to carry on with the fight. I, for one, am grateful for the chance to take that journey once again.

Here in Vermont, it's a good time for thinking of such things. The air is new and sweetened now by soft brown earth smells. There are birdsong stories, warm light on the skin, green peeking out near the creek, and in the deep blue of dusk the ancient wisdom of peeping frogs. Maybe it's like that where you are, too. Or perhaps the season has already burst into full-throated life. Either way, these are good days to sink into one of the poems in Mr. Felstiner's collection. It's a perfect time to open the door and remember, as Talbot Chambers wrote, that "it is a beautiful and blessed world we live in, and while life lasts, to lose enjoyment of it is a sin."

photo: Trevor Cameron