Nature Thankful for Poets
Irene Keller
October 4, 2026
I
“The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our
powers; . . . / For this, for everything, we are out of tune.” William Wordsworth, 1807
Notice not the peaceful setting of the sun that promises another day will follow?
Prefer technology LEDs, bright city lights, not the stars against the black sky?
Grind away at careers, secluded from “The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon”?
divine tunes
II
Blue Petunias tell us, “Look down and see the color I display, / This healing blue I draw
from earth. . . . I hold my worth / Is full as great as yours. / You, see no more than just
a blue petunia by the door.” Lucile Elliott Fox, 1934
Cherish not petunias’ gift, pride to be part of nature’s earthly colorful, healing charm?
Ignore the quiet voices of beauty, as we rush past them to buy a new blue blouse, shirt?
Buy flowers for our homes but find no time to care for them--they shrivel to their deaths?
hues with soothing powers
III
“Remember the earth whose skin you are . . . / Remember the plants, trees, animal life
who all have their / tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, / listen to them.
They are alive poems.” Joy Harjo, 1983
Deaf to the earth from which we came: she cries to survive; we ignore?
Ignorant of earth’s need to feed her families of trees, her flora, her fauna?
Seduced by our simulacra to notice a swarm of swallows, a colony of frogs?
life waiting to be seen
IV
“The need comes on me now to speak . . . / hard handwork that must be done / to remake,
so far as humans / can remake, all that humans / have unmade.” Wendell Berry, 2010
Unmake the choking air that hovers like an infested fog over us?
Replace plastic bags with cloth ones for billions of shopping carts?
Control burning fossil fuels to stop the inferno of nature, of homes?
healthy Earth again
Irene Keller, a retired educator, was able to spark students’ interest in poetry. Past or present, she has always had poetry in her life: past she taught poetry; present she writes poetry. Some of her poems have appeared in Texas Poetry Assignment, The Senior Class:100 Poets on Aging, Wild Roses anthology, Cody Enterprise and Owen Wister Review.
