Poems for the Wild Earth, ed. By Gary Lawless, Blackberry Books, 617 East Neck Road / Nobleboro, Maine 04555, ISBN: 0 942396-72-3 / $8.95.

Wild Earth, Wild Poetry

Gary Snyder says that “Languages are naturally evolved wild systems whose complexity eludes the descriptive attempts of the rational mind” (“Language Goes Two Ways”/ Sulfur 36). He could also be talking about Landscape. And he is. And he is talking about poetry, a language that if it is true to itself, matches is in harmony with the land. Wild land. Wild poetry.

This book is that, poetry appropriate to the experience of the land: Poems for the Wild Earth, edited by Gary Lawless. These poems come out of the experience of the wilderness and evoke it through language. There are poems here by the best of our wild poets, poets who we need more now than ever when all the pressures are to tame the land and our relationship to it: Carrol Arnett/ Gogisgi, Peter Berg, Peter Blue Cloud, Sharon Doubiago, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joanne Kyger, Barbara Mor, Gary Snyder and many more.

It would be easy to quote any of the poems in the collection to illustrate not only the quality of the artistry but also the need we have of the voice of the poets, the message of the song. Instead I’ll use the editor’s introduction, which, appropriately is also a poem:

When the animals come to us,

asking for our help,

will we know what they are saying?

When the plants speak to us

in their delicate, beautiful language,

will we be able to answer them?\

When the planet herself

sings to us in our dreams,

will we be able to wake ourselves, and act?

Return to Reviews