Poetry About Place

It is not enough to just “love nature” or want to “be in harmony with Gaia.” Our relation to the natural world takes place in a place, and it must be grounded in information and experience. Gary Snyder
My final semester seems to be coming together with poetry about place so I am reading many different poets and writers who embody the idea of place in their work.
Some resources:

Read some poems of Richard Hugo.

Southern poets on place, Southern Space.

Poets On Place

In Writing Toward Home by Georgia Heard, Heard writes about querencia. “In Spanish, querencia describes a place where one feels safe, a place from which one’s strength of character is drawn, a place where one feels at home. It comes from the verb querer, which means to desire, to want.” What does place mean to you? Is it where you live now or where you feel you come from? Where do you feel at home? 

Spend some time today thinking about place. What words come up immediately when you hear the term place. Jot down the words. Maybe this is a list that you’ll visit later in a poem, an essay or a short story. Are there smells and sounds on your list? Feelings that you forgot, memories that are unearthed? Brainstorm with home is or place is as a starting point. Now get back to work!

Lovingly,
The Writing Nag

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