Happy Earth Day! Wow. We need a celebration like this right now. Let’s look away from human nature for a minute and look up to Mother Nature. She’s amazing, isn’t she?

A few weeks ago, while mired in deadlines and family emergencies, I got something wonderful in the mail that I haven’t had time to celebrate. Well today is the perfect day to celebrate it.  Here it is:

Forest Has a Song framed by my live oak tree!

My friend Amy Ludwig Vanderwater’s debut book, Forest Has A Song! It is an absolutely gorgeous book of poetry celebrating a child’s discovery of nature’s many facets as she explores a forest. We see her marvel at life as she observes ferns unfurling, spiders knitting, and tree frogs serenading, and observing death in a fossil and a pile of bones. Forest Has A Song is a celebration of observation as well as nature! (Robbin Gourley’s water color images make it a celebration of color, too.)

I asked Amy to express the best Earth Day message A Forest Has A Song offers us and she did!

Go outside, just to be there. Walk. Listen. Let our beautiful planet sink into your very bones. Enjoy the mysteries. Remember who you are.

Thank you, Amy! I hope everyone will take a minute to do that today!

We’re also happy to feature a poem Amy wrote for Earth Day. It is, after all, National Poetry Month.

I can think of many more things to say about Earth Day.  About how much I love the twisting branches of the oaks in my yard, how if I walk a block in any direction I run into marches full of tall grass, scuttling crabs, and speckled with graceful long-necked birds, and how tree frogs cling to my office window every night of the summer. But… well, go out there and see what you can for yourself! Thanks again Amy for sharing your love of nature through your poems! (You can all expect a proper interview with Amy soon.)

To read a poem from Forest Has a Song and link to some of Robbin Gourley’s sketches, click HERE.  To see more about Amy’s Earth Day celebration click HERE.

*We also want to celebrate how another Nerdy Chick Interviewee is involved in Earth Day. Flori Pate’s banner was chosen for the Discovery home page today. See it live HERE.

Happy Earth Day everyone!