Waking Up to the Earth - by Margaret Gibson (Paperback)

About the Book

"Waking Up to the Earth, edited by Connecticut's Poet Laureate Margaret Gibson, is an anthology of poems by Connecticut poets who write of their relationships with the earth in a time of global climate crisis. The scope of the poems goes far beyond Connecticut to the whole ecosystem we humans share. With praise and wonder, and sometimes with grief or anger, the poems in this collection pay close attention to our planet and its inhabitants, its forests and oceans, its creatures: turtles and dung beetles, bats and bobcats, oak trees, orchards, and rivers. In a time of climate crisis, the poems in this anthology ask everyone to wake up to the earth, and to cherish it." -- Back cover.

Book Synopsis

Waking Up to the Earth, edited by Connecticut's Poet Laureate Margaret Gibson, is an anthology of poems by Connecticut poets who write of their relationships with the earth in a time of global climate crisis. The scope of the poems goes far beyond Connecticut to the whole ecosystem we humans share. With praise and wonder, and sometimes with grief or anger, the poems in this collection pay close attention to our planet and its inhabitants, its forests and oceans, its creatures: turtles and dung beetles, bats and bobcats, oak trees, orchards, and rivers. In a time of climate crisis, the poems in this anthology ask everyone to wake up to the earth, and to cherish it.

Review Quotes

Pausing to savor whichever luminous poem takes your fancy in this treasure-chest of an anthology, you will find yourself in a world we all live right next to, but which these poets of Connecticut-by their rapt attention to details big or small-make freshly available. Whether its end is political judgment or simply the deepening of pleasure in and understanding of the natural world, each poem here is an act of patient attention. Waking Up to the Earth is a timely, powerful, and persuasive wake-up call. Read in it; read through it. It will not leave you unchanged.

-Eamon Grennan, author of Out of Sight: New and Selected Poems and Still Life with Waterfall

It's hard to believe that the poems in this essential collection all come out of a single small state. But make no mistake; these are not poems about Connecticut. They are poems about the world-our one and only world-and the damage we inflict upon it. Ranging from expressions of profound love for and intimacy with the earth and its many creatures to grief and rage at our species' self-destructive blindness, each poem is a testament to our planet's preciousness and a grave warning of its fragility. Waking Up to the Earth is a resounding wake-up call.

-Chase Twichell, author of Things As It Is and Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been