Friday, October 26, 2012

Nature & Writing

    Each season brings its own beauty:

Spring showers
Summer flowers
Autumn colors
and winter white

    For writers, the seasons provide a setting to contemplate, and describe nature's natural wonders.




    The great author, Henry David Thoreau  and  his Walden Pond most often comes to mind - You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns. 

     But there are others, too. According to Richard Norquist,  nature writing is a form of creative non-fiction in which the natural environment serves as the dominant subject.  The Writing Instructor, an on-line guide explains, Nature writing is perhaps the most American form of writing. It celebrates America's wilderness and open spaces.

     William Wordsworth wrote, Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher. Walt Whitman, A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than metaphysics of books; Ralph Waldo Emerson,  Earth laughs in flowers

     One of my favorites,  e.e. cummings, I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes, and Thomas Merton in one of his essay's  writes, By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.

     We often hear of an artists desire to travel to Paris  to paint - that their talent will blossom and bloom as the surroundings there  will give them inspiration, and deepen their appreciation of art. But where do writers choose to go ?  I suggest it's to nature - the quiet  solitude of wooded areas, where wildlife freely roams,  and in the distance,  deep blue  lake water glistens  in the sun.

    North Idaho is that kind of place. A place for writers to breathe in the beauty of the natural earthy environment,  and  be inspired to write.


*** For tips about nature writing visit  Henry Thoreau as a Model for Nature Writing by Ron Harton  http://thoreau.eserver.org/harton.html

    

    

     

     

    

     


1 comment:

Kitchen worktops man said...

Is this poem:

Spring showers
Summer flowers
Autumn colors
and winter white

Yours? I really like it!