Nothing Divine Dies is a poetry anthology about nature includes the writing of over fifty poets. The writing places you at the heart of a misty glade. It fills your ears with the twittering of birds, and you feel the gentle sunshine breaking through the mist alight on your face. Watch a blossom unfold!
If you do not have immediate access to the privacy of woodland clearing or the time to sit beside a twinkling stream with willow branches shy on your back, the writing in this anthology will transport you from your cozy living room to the presence of nature at her raw and beautiful best.
Why my poems are short poems.
Their short nature (pun intended) takes me back to the beginning of my writing journey. I began writing poetically with haiku. I love encompassing huge thoughts in small words.
At first, I avoided free verse, frightened at the thought of too much freedom and afraid to see where it would take me. I continued to condense thoughts into tiny poems because my longer pieces seemed too long and too unclear.
Over time, as I read the work of fellow writers, I began to want to harness the ability to tell a story freely, in as many words as needed.
I copied the styles of known writers to find my own voice. Then I looked past styles to learn how to present a scene, capture a feeling, and tell a story.
We read to learn. Ultimately, we learn about fast fashion, about dog collars, about Italy reading articles, blog posts, and books. And we absorb what we learn. When we sit down to write, we call on what we know.
The trivial things I absorb over the day work into my writing. Stories from my rural mountain home, faraway Italy, which I have never seen, a bit of Egyptian pottery I once saw in a magazine turn into the focus of my writing. I write what I feel and think I know and that makes it true.
These two poems are deeply what I know, coming straight from experiences living in the mountains of Virginia.