To celebrate National Poetry Month and the start of spring, the children have been reading poems about the natural world and writing their own verses. To cheer on their efforts, beloved TCS teacher Nancy Jameson came by to share her passion for writing poetry and to read some of her own work.

A wonderful resource our students are turning to for inspiration is National Geographic’s Book of Nature Poetry: More than 200 Poems With Photographs That Float, Zoom, and Bloom! The collection pairs stunning photos of snowbanks, deserts, solar eclipses, forest fungi, undersea formations, and flora and fauna around the world with classic poems by Keats, Yeats and the Tang Dynasty poet Li Po, as well as contemporary children’s writers such as Marilyn Singer and Douglas Florian. Curated by former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, this book shows how scientific observations of phenomena like volcanos and marine life can be the grist for artful language and metaphor. Given the natural wonders depicted in the photographs, it’s no wonder poets are inspired to reach for the pen.

To read these poems together, and see our students transform their love of nature into verse, reminds us of these words from Wordsworth: “And then my heart with pleasure fills, /And dances with the daffodils.”

Here’s to sinking into springtime and poetry this April!

Maureen