‘Carol Ann Duffy is the most humane and accessible poet of our time’ - Guardian
The wonders of nature have inspired poets for centuries, stretching far back beyond the Romantics. Beautifully curated by Carol Ann Duffy, the poems in Earth Prayers span widely across time, but in their moments of joy, empathy or difference, even the earliest poems reveal a concern for the welfare of our planet. Duffy brings these early eco-poems into conversation with contemporary voices writing into the environmental crisis, and through this dialogue sounds a clarion call to cherish and defend the planet while we can.
From John Clare to Lucille Clifton to Kathleen Jamie, the poets collected in Earth Prayers speak at times as stewards and ambassadors of the earth, at others in anger at those who would exploit nature, or to question their own part in its decline. And the earth speaks back: in Stephanie Pruitt’s ‘Mississippi Gardens’ the soil bears witness to the worst of human history, while in ‘Poem’ Jorie Graham relays the earth’s plea: ‘remember me’.
To encounter nature, these poems tell us, is to be humbled, to have our own smallness magnified by the presence of the sublime. Earth Prayers is a testament to the immense beauty of the natural world, and a challenging reminder of our place in ‘the living skein / of which the world is woven’.
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Earth Prayers 9781035048144 Hardback
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Earth Prayers
A lovely, quality book, the ribbon marker is a nice touch. A slim volume brimming with good poems. A gem of a book that stirs heart and mind as humans and the earth journey through the climate crisis. Poets from the northern hemisphere find words and verses that resonate globally. The poems cause o…
A lovely, quality book, the ribbon marker is a nice touch. A slim volume brimming with good poems. A gem of a book that stirs heart and mind as humans and the earth journey through the climate crisis. Poets from the northern hemisphere find words and verses that resonate globally. The poems cause one to be in awe of the natural world, stirring heart and mind with respect and gratitude. for the earth, our home. Powerful, narcissistic leaders only in awe of themselves should read poetry like this to help them realise that they should humble themselves and be in awe of the planet and not just themselves. One should read this book alongside the book 'Orbital' by Samantha Harvey. They compliment each other.
- Authors:
- Duffy DBE, Carol Ann
- Year Published:
- 2024
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Format:
- Hardback
- Editors:
- Duffy DBE, Carol Ann
- ISBN:
- 9781035048144
- Number of Pages:
- 160
- Publication Date:
- 24/10/2024
- Publisher:
- Pan Macmillan
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Language:
- English
- SKU:
- 9781035048144