Earth Song was born from a pivotal moment of personal connection with nature, while the world seemed burning with pandemic fever and climate fire. This anthology of eco-poetry gathered by editor Sara Barkat is infused with vision and care. Holding the collection is like cradling a rare crystal that focuses longing, love, tenderness, hope, and a wish for the world to keep turning… in unutterable ways. Thus: the visceral need for poetry. Words that sing more than speak. Images that invite more than opine.
Arranged to mirror the experience of an orchestral piece—with repeating refrains of Teasdale and Hopkins, Earth Song unfolds its lyric moments through a wide range of voices. Historic. Modern-day. Cross-cultural. Global—with many poems in beautiful translation. The collection includes both emerging poets and greats like Neruda, Berry, Hirshfield, Darwish, Dickinson, McKay and Merwin.
Leaving off anger, which is the single emotion that many people have come to associate with environmental concern, this collection puts forth a vision more nuanced, more poignant, and not easily brushed aside. Like an irresistible piece of music, it draws readers to embrace their care for the world—starting so simply: celebrating life moment-by-small-moment.
Full List of Poets Featured in Earth Song
Scott Edward Anderson, Crisosto Apache, L. L. Barkat, Sara Barkat, Wendell Berry, Kimberly Blaeser, William Blake, Robert Burns, Jennifer Chang, Briceida Cuevas Cob, Jack Cooper, Mahmoud Darwish, Emily Dickinson, Louise Erdrich, Forugh Farrokhzad, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Robert Frost, Mary Elizabeth Frye, Martha Greenwald, Jennifer Grotz, Thomas Hardy, Jane Hirshfield, Tony Hoagland, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Major Jackson, Emily Pauline Johnson, P. K., Irakli Kakabadze, Laura Kasischke, Jan Kaus, John Keats, D. H. Lawrence, Li-Young Lee, Si-Young Lee, Luljeta Lleshanaku, Kate Seymour Maclean, Rick Maxson, Janet McAdams, Claude McKay, W. S. Merwin, Sandra Fox Murphy, Pablo Neruda, Michelle Ortega, Anne M. Doe Overstreet, Peter Payack, Lola Ridge, Hermit Tai Shang, Dave Smith, Wallace Stevens, Rabindranath Tagore, Sara Teasdale, Wyatt Townley, Tomas Tranströmer, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Gerald Vizenor, Walt Whitman, Will Willingham, Elizabeth Woody, William Wordsworth, William Butler Yeats.
