Earth Day with Amy

There would be very little point in my exhausting myself and other conservationist themselves in trying to protect animals and habitats if we weren't at the same time raising young people to be better stewards.
~Dr. Jane Goodall



Whatever my friend Amy Ludwig Vanderwater does, she does with her whole heart. She doesn't just talk about taking an interest in the natural world, she lives it.


Amy's poetry picture book Forest Has a Song came out this spring and she has kindly given me permission to share a poem from it:

Farewell
by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Forest breathes
a spicy breeze.
It blows
into my ear:

When you go home
do not forget
my leaves
my song
my deer.
Remember
I am Forest.
Remember
I am here.

**************

Some of my other favorite Earth Day/nature-related poems of Amy's include:

* Song for Garbage Day
* Sticks
* Animals All Know
* Fear

Links:

* A OneFourKidLit interview with Amy
* Kids for Saving Earth
* Symphony of Science from Climate Reality (prose song)
* Earth Day from the Environmental Protection Agency
* Easy Eco Blog

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
~John Muir