Here: Poems for the Planet — a review

Poetry has fallen by the wayside in our fast-paced world but it can have a deep role in helping us absorb the good and bad of existence. Released last year, this compilation of poems from authors young and old, captures the beauty, wonder, loss and despair of our relationship with the planet.

Editor Elizabeth Coleman says the poems “Celebrate the Earth, even as we grieve what we have done to our splendid planet and its creatures.” Coleman says her aim was to galvanise readers to address the environmental crisis head on. It achieves that and more. Here is a taste from Ruin and Beauty, by Patricia Young:

…already wolves come down from the hills

to forage among us. We are like them now, 

just another species looking to the stars 

and howling extinction. 

Here: Poems for the planet Elizabeth J Coleman ed. is published by Copper Canyon Press.