The Haunted Forest Trilogy

by Jarod K. Anderson

Bats can hear shapes.
Plants can eat light.
Bees can dance maps.

We can hold all these ideas at once
and feel both heavy and weightless
with the absurd beauty of it all.


This three-book poetry collection is comprised of Field Guide to the Haunted Forest (2020), Love Notes from the Hollow Tree (2022), and Leaf Litter (2023), collectively known as The Haunted Forest Trilogy. Jarod K. Anderson's best-selling nature poetry is celebrated by readers for its clarity, insight, and warmth. Vivid and approachable, the work gathered here invites readers to rediscover commonplace wonders and find new meaning in topics ranging from moss to mortality.

The poems in this trilogy highlight our connection to a living universe and affirm our place in a wilderness worthy of our love.

Genres: Poetry, Nature

264 pages, Hardcover

Published August 9, 2024

About the author

Jarod K. Anderson is a writer and poet from Ohio. He has published three books of nature poetry as well as the memoir Something in the Woods Loves You, about his lifelong struggle with depression and the healing power of the natural world. His contemporary fantasy novel Strange Animals was called "a wholly captivating tale of magic and nature" by Publishers Weekly. Jarod's work has been featured in diverse places such as Asimov's, The Sun Magazine, Literary Hub, musical adaptations performed at Carnegie Hall, and even on Patagonia brand clothing. He has been a featured guest, workshop teacher, and speaker for organizations including Georgetown University's Earth Commons program and The Henry David Thoreau Foundation.

Reviews

[Kristen Freiburger · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I return home from this tropical vacation, I’m headed in the cold and snow directly to Schulers and picking up countless copies as gifts. Peaceful, calming, centering, hopeful just waiting for you to discover.

[Marie B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You are nature and nature will go on, but there is kindness that only you can choose to bring to the world."

Jarod K. Anderson's poetry always makes my heart so full, so hopeful and connected. I don't really have words to explain how grateful I am for it, feels like no word would be enough.

[Caro Vazquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore Jarod K. Anderson’s poetry! It’s so accesible and yet so deep and profound. It just makes you want to move to a cabin in the forest while also making you reflect and rethink your life. A love letter to the humanity of nature and the nature of humanity❤️

[Leslie Wexler · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the one who gave me this book: I read all the poems you shared with me one early summer afternoon, and I read all the other ones too, and thought about how depression can find expression in many forms. I read the poems of Jarod Anderson, and think my English literature friends would laugh and call him "lacking subtlety" in a derisive way.

That's unfair. Anderson is a literature grad himself. He was trained in house, just like the rest of us, and yet he didn't consign himself to a windowless environment populated entirely by elitist poetry snobs who long ago abandoned the reading and discussion of literature in favor of creating ever more restrictive and meaningless ways for humans to attempt to make themselves known to one another. Instead, he went outside and wrote poetry to quell his own inner disquiet. His poems are light and an easy entry for anyone wanting to get a first taste of poetry. Many of his poems are unrestrictedly goofy, others are deep wells of depression trying to find the light of day. Each is a brave encounter where he simply allows poetry be what it is for him in the moment, and has the courage to send it out into the world as an authentic expression. For that, and many other reasons, like this "otters-sleep-holding-hands" type reel...

When All Else Fails

I have to assume that in the fullness of time,
at least once,
a mouse has used a mushroom as an umbrella.

I think, today,
that's enough to keep me going.

...I like it. You can feel the desire to be innocent, and young, and hopeful in every little word. It doesn't ask for profound ephiphany or grand gestures. Just a poem a day to get through the day. That's as good a reason for poetry as any.

Oh Well

Somewhere betwen denial
and surrender
is oh well

I hurt today.
Oh well.

I'm going for a walk and if it doesn't help,
oh well.

I'm not going to panic-buy anything.
I'm not going to harm myself in frantic flight to distrction.

I'm going to take pride in every heartbeat
I can hold my pain gentle and inert.

Oh well.
My quiet victory.

Oh well acknowleges the disappointment
without meeting its demands
without handing it the keys.

Next time you skin both knees
falling short of your hopes.

try, oh well.

It's not a celebration of defeat,
it is a celebration,
a farewell party for a hurt exiting our present moment,
a whispered thanks that we can endure.

I've read a portion of Anderson's other work: Something the Woods Loves you, where he addresses much of his experience with chronic depression directly, and there you will find an extended meditation on Forsythia in his backyard. Within the trilogy collection, "Forsythia" might be my favourite:

As forsythia grows tall,
it's branches bend beneath their own weight,
bowing to the ground in arches of yellow flowers.

Whenever they touch the earth,
the branches root again and send up new shoots,
stitching gold across the landscape.

Some new kinds of knowledge shift our center of gravity,
staggering us,
bending us low beneath the burden.

If you think of your worldview as a stone tower,
this shift is a cataclysm of splintered rock.

If your worldview is forsythia,
then every startling truth that bends you low becomes a new connection
to the earth,
a new way to stand,
an invitation to grow.

We live in a time of strong wind and sudden pressure.
It is not an age for towers.

It's an age for stubborn flowers.

Inscription:
For the one who gave it to me page 182, there's nothing to fix. Then 152.

[Laura Weldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consider using this book as an oracle. Bring a worry or dilemma to mind, tell yourself the answer awaits, then open this (or any book by Jarod) randomly with your eyes closed and let your finger rest on the page. Read that line aloud. The answer is right there.

I ask, what do I need to know to be healthy? The answer I'm given: "Stab your predators"

I ask, is there hope for my country? The answer I'm given: "Just a reminder that you are building something that will one day be/whole and complete."

I ask, can I send love to someone who hates me? The answer I'm given: "inherent in the act of loving one thing/is a love for all things."

Try it!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most impactful poetry I've ever had the privilege of reading. This will definitely be a book that I'll pick back up year after year. Cannot recommend highly enough. Optimistically existential, wonderfully whimsically, morbidly motivational. Reads like the peroxide my mom used to pour on my cuts as a kid (as in something strangely familiar and nostalgic that somehow stings and comforts at the same time).

[Alicia J Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jarod K. Anderson is just my absolute favourite poet. Such a wonderful example of the ways humans are so multifaceted and so connected and so alike. This book and I are kin.

I can’t wait to continue reading this over and over and over and filling the margins with my reflections in different coloured pens. It’ll be the most loved book you’d ever see.

[ilikedots · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy poetry but would never buy a book of it. I started seeing this author’s writing on instagram and couldn’t get enough. The imagery is astounding and deeply moving. A blend of mental health and nature. It’s beautiful and I’ll probably never stop reading it.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the blend of nature, observation and mindfulness.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I hoped for and more - this book is going to become one that I pick up over and over and wear down the corners.

[Cathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

the three books of poetry fall seamlessly together. a thought provoking read.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve already read all the books in this collection, but I finally got a physical copy and decided to read it all again lol

[Edwin Radin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous special edition version of an existing three-volume poetry series. Would make a great gift for the nature lover.

[Meg (Kismic) Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a read straight through and you’re done kind of book. I’ll never be done- these poems sit with you, make you think and then bring you back to reread again and again.

[Lewis Szymanski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave the three books that make up this book five stars each, so of course I'm giving this five stars.

More importantly, a Goodreads librarian needs to merge the Jarod K Anderson profile with the Jarod K. Anderson profile.

Edit: Yay, it's fixed.