Re-naturing our minds with Eco-poetry

KATIE NEWNS prescribes the healing power of Mary Oliver’s poetry, reconnecting us with nature as a remedy against the pressures of everyday life

Amidst the stresses of everyday life, it can be easy to forget how incredible and miraculous life on earth truly is. Without sounding too airy fairy, it seems many of us live day to day without paying a thought to our roles within the natural world, with our human grade chaos taking precedence, ultimately forging a disconnect between ourselves and nature.

It wasn’t until I was introduced to Mary Oliver’s poetry in a second-year university lecture that I discovered the powerful effect that poetry can have on deepening our connections with nature. The American poet, who sadly passed away in 2019, described as an “indefatigable guide to the natural world,” (Kumin 1993) crafted words that felt as though they might metamorphosise into the wise old branches of trees, reaching down to take us away from the stresses of life.

Reconnect with nature

I found Mary Oliver’s words to be a powerful reminder that we are not excluded from the natural world as a symptom of our humanity. By this, I mean that sometimes the things that make us human have a distancing effect between us, our fellow mammals, and every other living organism that we share this wonderful earth with. This distance can at times feel isolating, as we get caught up in the web of existential worry, fearing that we’re not living up to our potential, or the ever-present demand of financially, socially, and personally ‘bettering’ ourselves, instead of just embracing life for what it is and ourselves for who we are. Eco-poetry has the unique ability to reach into our souls and drag us back down to earth as we hover above it in our heads, forcing us to be present on the earth we belong to.

Embrace your instincts

Oliver's poem Wild Geese is exemplary of our interconnectedness and belonging to nature. The poem begins by inviting the reader to reconnect with the natural world:

You do not have to be good,

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.”

Her words cast nature as a judgment-free space, highlighting the inherent worth of all beings regardless of their perceived "goodness" or "badness", a message particularly valuable to anyone battling with feelings of self-worth.  Oliver’s encouragement to embrace one's instincts and desires, echoing the ecological principle of biophilia, suggests that humans have an innate connection to and love for the natural world. She concludes with the speaker affirming the reader's belonging within the larger web of life:

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

This underscores the idea that humans are not separate from nature but are rather an integral part of it.

The solace of eco-poetry

When reading Mary Oliver's poetry, it seems only appropriate to be out in nature for a multi-dimensional and even more meaningful experience. I like to take myself off to the woodlands or a sunny field, sit amongst the blossoming wildflowers and trees and feel the dappled sun poking through their leaves.

The poem Sleeping in The Forest comes to mind in these moments as it captures and accentuates the beauty of truly embracing nature. This poem for me, and many others, is a perfect example of how eco-poetry can be used as a source of solace and light, illuminating nature’s role as our greatest and most reliable healer. The voice of Mary Oliver’s poetry harnesses the power of both language and nature in perfect harmony, making it feel as though one could not exist without the other. She casts nature as a warm and motherly presence who exists to nourish, protect, and comfort us in times of need.

The poem begins:

I thought the earth remembered me, she

took me back so tenderly, arranging

her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds.

A big hug from Mother Earth

Reading these words out loud feels like being hugged by Mother Earth herself, crafting a figure of natural beauty decorated in the earth’s homemade trinkets. This image of nature taking us in, whether we find ourselves overwhelmed by the chaos of everyday life or feeling like we’ve lost our sense of selves, reinforces the fact that nature’s presence in our lives is unconditional and unwavering no matter how far we stray. The poem affirms the serenity of this feeling, thrusting us into nature’s arms with her tantalizing words:

                                   I slept

as never before, a stone

on the riverbed, nothing

between me and the white fire of the stars

The humanisation of nature in Sleeping in The Forest invokes a feeling that we have a duty to protect nature as it does us. One essential aspect of eco-poetry as a genre is that it highlights the detriment of climate change on our planet and pushes readers to take action. While subtle in her work, Mary Oliver’s poetry awakens readers to the reality that our impact on the planet will not only be felt by us, but every living creature.

Parallel Lives

In the following extract from Sleeping in The Forest Oliver's words showcase her special ability to make us consider the intricacies of the creatures’ lives we rarely think about and in turn highlights the importance of every living being on the earth.

I heard the small kingdoms breathing

around me, the insects, and the birds

who do their work in the darkness.

The “small kingdoms” and the “work” that goes on within them paints a picture of nature as a parallel world, mirroring the productivity and communities found within our own human landscapes.

  So, if you’re reading this now and relate to feeling slightly lost amongst the pressure and commotion of everyday life and are a lover of nature in any which way shape or form, I prescribe to you the healing powers of Mary Oliver’s eco poetry. You never know, it might just make you flourish.

Written by KATIE NEWNS (English Literature student, University of Chester, UK)