National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry edited by J. Patrick Lewis

Bibliography

Lewis, J. Patrick. National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry: More than 200 Poems with Photographs That Float, Zoom, and Bloom! New York, NY: Scholastic Inc., 2016. ISBN 9781426320941

Summary

Form Children’s Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, celebrates our world and all it’s beauty in over 200 poems from old and new poets. Readers will love the always lyrical and sometimes silly look at our world. 

Analysis

This anthology compiled by former Children’s Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, is a pleasure from cover to cover. Because of the title’s big letters, readers can easily identify that this book is full of Nature Poetry. The poems inside are from poets, new and old, that many will be familiar with such as Janet S. Wong, Naomi Shihab Nye, J. Patrick Lewis, E. E. Cummings, Nikki Grimes, Langston Hughes, Marilyn Singer, and Emily Dickinson. Since the back of the book includes indexes by title, subject, first line, and poet, readers can easily find poems by any of those specifics. Each poem is unique in style, but not in quality; they are all wonderful poems. Some poems are lyrical and reflective. Others are more humorous like Rhea by Douglas Florian, Gym on a Rock by Sonya Sones, and WHALE by Mary Ann Hoberman. There are haikus like Four Haiku by Matsuo Basho translated by Robert Hass. Poems like The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee by N. Scott Momaday which read, “I am a feather on the bright sky/ I am the blue horse that runs in the plain/ I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water/ I am the shadow that follows a child” use repetition to capture readers. One to two page spreads often have a theme like the poems Take Bus 9 to the Red Sea Beach by John Barr and The Red Crabs of Christmas Island by B.J. Lee which are both about red things. Poems are accompanied by awe inspiring color photographs of nature such as the incredible photography of the salt crystals in the Dead Sea accompanying the poem Dead Sea by Rebecca Kai Dotlich or the photograph on the cover of the Northern Lights. While poems are all about nature, as seen when reader’s flip to the glossary, they cover a myriad of areas like the sea, the sky, the seasons, natural disasters, and more. This book is a great resource and read for any age. 

Sample Poem

Everything Old Becomes New

Everything old becomes new before it dies.

Chrysalis, a moment before the butterflies

stretch those limp and limpid wings,

makes a sound, almost sings,

exchanges breath with its quaking new life.

Egg about to crack before the break’s sure knife

remembers warmth inside the hen.

Mountain crumbles into its own ravine. 

And you walking the Devon hills

remark the old year, watching the spills

of winter sun blaze the ancient landscape there

before the turning of the fading year.

Everything old, dear friends, anew.

Even me, even you.

                - Jane Yolen

During the unit when students are watching butterflies develop, read this poem. Have students consider what other animals and insects they know of that transform or go through changes. Reread the poem and have students join in for the last two lines. Have students consider how they too go through changes like the butterfly and the other insects and animals they shared. Let students write responses in poetry or prose.