I am the proud holder of the title, Poet of the Week for W3 Weekly We’ave Poetry Prompt #59. Braden, last week’s PoW gave me the honour. I’m chuffed. My warmest thanks to him for his good taste in poetry. 😁
Here are my guidelines for the poetry prompt.
My guidelines
Write about the first wild creature that you see which inspires you on the day you write your poem. (by wild creature I do not mean your spouse, etc.)
*express the important symbiosis of wildlife, nature and us.
*our emotional connection to the smallest of creatures (or the largest).
*about anything from the natural world
*how your observation of an animal, insect, bird, wildflowers, etc. makes you feel.
*If you cannot get outside—write about the nature/wildlife within your home or visible from a window. (even the window of your mind)
Write in any poetry form or style you wish.
Alongside these guidelines, I also asked if anyone of the contributing poets for the W3 Weekly Poetry Prompt might like to add the hashtag for the #30 Days Wild Challenge on behalf of the Wildlife Trusts. To help promote awareness of the value of wildlife. It is a UK annual event that inspires people to get outside and enjoy nature and wildlife.
I am a slow reader, but the poems I’ve read so far written in response to this challenge are remarkable. I look forward to reading them all.
The Wildlife Trusts #30DaysWild
The aim of Wildlife Trusts #30 Days Wild (annual event in the UK) is to get everyone out there and reconnect with the natural world. To notice the smallest of insects to the tallest of trees. To realise their importance and value.
The important message that poetry helps to spread is reconnecting people with nature. To focus on the natural world. To care for it.
I’ve gone wild and written a poem (following the rules, of course) about the first creature I saw. Which was a small spider.
The Small Spider: a curious observance for #30DaysWild
The Small Spider I go for a walk down a country lane (it’s not in the country) I lied. I’m in town The first thing I spied was plain to see Can you see it too? Can you? (or is it just me?) I spied a Spider as plain as plain as can be on the bark of an old plane tree. What type of spider? I couldn’t say It’s small Minutiae Unconsidered by most who pass this tree They don’t know it’s there It’s hard to see, (If at all) It’s small I lean in close to get a better look I stand on a twig The plane tree shook The spider froze, They know I’m here! Am I too near? My nose too big? My eyes so large? (btw, I’ve named him Marge) He sensed my gaze and froze I am afeared! Is he dead? Is he ill? It’s ever so still So still on the bark, I take his picture on my iPhone for a lark Then, turn away To leave him alone. I sneak a peek With a backward glance perchance The spider I spied Hadn’t died He’s on the run! I watch him weave his way and take his leave in camouflage, patterns of his old plane tree to disappear aloft I crane my neck to see— but by heck, he’s doffed his hat and gone. Far, far up the tree, He’s run Nice knowing you, Marge. ‘twas fun Lesley Scoble, June 2023
Poetic Connection with Nature
Two well known poets, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage both use their poetry to express the beauty of nature and the plight of the insect world.
Carol Ann Duffy
In May 2019, Carol Ann Duffy came to the end of her ten-year tenure as UK Poet Laureate.
To celebrate her poet laureateship, she presented Into Thin Air: Carol Ann Duffy presents poems about our vanishing insect world.
The event involved commissioned poetry from selected poets.
Poems by Alice Oswald, Daljit Nagra, Paul Muldoon, and others. To express the beauty of an insect world facing extinction.
I quote Duffy who said,
“…unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades. The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic.” As school children all over the world demonstrate against climate change and Extinction Rebellion carry their trees on to Waterloo Bridge, here are several newly commissioned poems, and one of mine, that celebrate and properly regard insects, as poets have done since Virgil. Everything that lives is connected and poetry’s duty and joy is in making those connections visible in language.”
Follow the link to read the full Guardian article and poems.
simon armitage
“Nature has come back to the centre of poetry,”
They appointed Simon Armitage Poet Laureate in May 2019. He is a poet who cares about nature, climate and the environment.
Here is his poem about THE HERON. I like it and hope you do too.
You pull onto the soft verge And the tyres slacken into the dirt. I pass the field-glasses From the glove compartment And you fumble, finding a focus Through the action of the wipers And describe it to me: how it Hangs in the shallows, shaking the rain From its featherings. How it watches, Then cautiously adopts Its fishing position, then wades Thoughtfully forward, then holds again. You go on piecing out the picture And I affect not to listen Until you put the glasses down And I realise you’ve stopped talking. We sit there, breathing, steaming up The windows and watching As the heron feints To a fleck on the line of the lake Like a wood-chip flaw On slate Ingres paper And the hilltops are water-marked If we look hard enough. Simon Armitage
NOTES 30 Days Wild is run by the Wildlife Trusts, this annual event is taking place between 1st – 30th June 2023. The event is suitable for people of all ages and backgrounds and aims to connect people with nature and increase their appreciation of the natural world by asking them to do one wild thing a day for the entire month. Nature and wildlife are vital to our mental health and physical wellbeing. THANKS My wholehearted thanks to David, Skeptics Kaddish and Braden, Curious Cappuccino for their encouragement and support. My humble thanks to all the poets for their brilliant, wild, poetic responses to my 30 Days Wild poetry prompt.
Be wild. 🕷️
Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright, (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in schools); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.
LesleyScoble.com 
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