To many poets of the past, writing about nature was a focus on the observation of bright colors, peaceful animals, scenic landscapes, and ambient sounds. It has often been relegated to poetry that is about a capital “N” Nature that exists outside of us, and is therefore devoid of context. Nature’s location has also been stiffly defined. Some think nature is only when you are at the beach, or when you’ve taken a hike. It has become something you go to, not something that exists all around us.

 

When Black people moved to the city during the Great Migration, there was a concentrated denial of Black people being associated with the land. Even our own people sometimes forget this ancestral connection. This land fed us, broke us, and shielded us. Everywhere we look we find reminders of this history. We do not have the privilege of writing nature without context, and because many of our poems also feature elements not considered “natural” such as cityscapes or apartment living, our nature poems are often categorized as Black urban, or race poetry. Many Black Nature poets go unnoticed.

 

But is nature not the wind that blows through your windows in the city? Is it not in the pigeons that rest on the lightpoles, or the robin that nests in the light fixture above your door? When you write about your mom showing you how to catch fireflies in the Northside of St. Louis, do the concrete buildings stop it from being an experience of the natural world? What of the wildflowers that insist on pushing through the sidewalk? Are humans not animals? Isn’t everything around us nature?

 

In this generative poetry workshop, we will transform our perspective on the nature poem. We will witness how nature can be an unexpected character, adding meaning and understanding to the ways our lives are connected with the complex ecosystems we engage with no matter where we live. Together, we will read a variety of poetry that model new approaches to nature writing from a more personal and introspective lens. While the works explored focus on poetry, participants can expect to leave the workshop with written drafts that emphasize the natural world, no matter their skill level, genre or previously preconceived notions on writing about nature. The objective of the workshop is to reconsider what we believe to be a nature poem.

 

Class meets in person Tuesday, December 8, 10 am - noon.

 

Member discount: Members of Write On receive a 10% discount on all classes and workshops. To become a member, please click here. To receive the discount, members must log in to the website using their unique password and enter member10 in the promotion code box. The code is case sensitive.

 

Teaching Artist:  Jazmin Witherspoon is an Appalachian poet and multi-media artist whose work has appeared in Ghost City Review, Cacti Fur, and other journals. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky, where she was a two-time Nikky Finney Fellow (2022, 2023) and the 2023 winner of the KLP Broadside Poetry Contest. Jazmin has been a writer-in-residence at Sundress Publications (Fall 2024) and the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2025 and is the recipient of the 2026 Cushman/Clemons Scholarship at Penland School of Craft. She currently works as the Program Manager at Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University.