Most of all, these poems honor what feelings and lessons nature gives us. In her poem, Dorianne Laux writes, “I felt large inside my life,” and Victoria Chang writes in hers, “In Alaska, my life was with me again, attached for now.” Patricia Smith allows for a vibrating instruction in her poem: “Blossom when you’re ready, but rough.” Here, poems serve as a witnessing as much as they do incantations.
