Celebrate Earth Day with Poetry!

When you hike through a natural area - a wetland, national park, state forest - there's a creed: Take nothing but Pictures. Leave nothing but Footprints.

It's a reminder to tread the earth lightly, as we are but a visitor in wild places.

Earth Day is a good time to remember how we are part of the environment, not apart from it. To celebrate, I share the words of Marilyn Singer, with a poem from her book Footprints on the Roof (Alfred A Knopf, 2002). 

Burrows

Out in the country I walk across towns

            I'll never see:

mazy metropolises

            under the earth

             where rabbits hide from foxes

                 foxes hide from dogs

                 full-bellied snakes sleep snugly

                        worms work uncomplaining

Where what you see is nothing –

what counts is what you smell

            or hear or feel

I try to tread softly:

            a quiet giant

               leaving only footprints

                        on the roof

You can find more of Marilyn's poetry - and her wonderful children's books, at her website. We're joining Nonfiction Monday, where you can see what other reviewers are writing about. Review copy from library.

Check back tomorrow - and all this week - for EARTH Week activities.