Nature Speaks Poetry
On July 17th, Clean4Change hosted an event in Big Rock Park called Nature Speaks. At this event we invited many aspiring local artists to submit a piece of poetry to read to a live audience. We got submissions from 3 states, and many different cities. But in case you weren’t there to hear the poetry live, we compiled them here for you. Click on the picture next to the blurb the artist sent in to read their works!
9-5
Hunter Brooks
Hunter Brooks is from Georgetown, Ky, and is a senior at Western Kentucky University studying anthropology, music, and theater. Hunter says, “9-5” was inspired by, “the early mornings I spend outside before work. Getting up before most people, I would listen to the sounds of nature. I wanted to contrast the abundance of life in nature against the abundance of life of people. Before the world awakens to go to work, there is still so much life, a beauty which I greatly enjoy.”
Carolina Winds
Ally Howard
Ally Howard is from Louisville, KY and is 19 years old. She started writing when she attended Assumption High School. She continues to write at Hanover College, where she is currently studying English.
“Carolina Winds" is inspired by Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing, a novel about a young girl who seeks solace in the marsh. Similarly, Cecilia Wilder turns to the woods for comfort after her mother's passing. Both girls learn to use nature as an escape from their lonely childhoods.
A View from the Castle
Faith Anderson
Faith Anderson is a senior at Millikin University, pursuing a Bachelors in Theatre. She was born and raised in Louisville, KY. She has loved creative writing since she was a child and has been writing for a very long time. It’s always something that has been an outlet for her. She has a deep love for nature and this was something she wanted to be honest about in the ways our world approaches climate change and environmentalism.
About her piece, she says, “We build ourselves so high and we don’t care what we have to destroy to put ourselves on pedestals, even if it’s the thing that provides us grounding. We cheat our way to look good and we’ve lost sight of our priorities and what the earth is: it’s a gift and it doesn’t belong to us just because we live on it; it belongs to God. We are supposed to be the gardeners, not gods.”
Feverish Gaze and A Mother’s Call
Alexandria Anderson
My name is Alexandria Anderson, and I'm a sophomore Health Sciences and Biology for Pre-Med student at Western Kentucky University. I'm from Indian Mound, Tennessee and have had a passion for writing since I was very young. My poetry often tackles the beauty of the natural world, and feverish gaze was inspired by my life living in a small, rural town surrounded by nature. I hope that personifiying our world through poetry could help some realize how important climate change activism can be.
The Life Cycle of a Potato Bug
Maria Elkins
My name is Maria and I am a Berea College student. The oldest of eight, I’m from New Douglas, Illinois.
My piece was inspired by the beautiful garden of incredibly kind people who I was blessed enough to live with this summer here in Kentucky.
Mindless, Headless, Breadless
Ellie Burns
Ellie Burns is a young aspiring creator from Louisville, Kentucky, striving to change the world and impact those around her in a positive way. She attends Baldwin Wallace University (class of 2025), with a double major in creative writing and film studies. She also is a student athlete, and participates in Cross Country and Track at BW.
“This poem was written on the way back from the Newport Aquarium with my family. I was in the back seat with my little cousin, and while I was looking out the window, I felt compelled to start something in my Notes app. Since I began college, with being a student athlete, my writing habits have become strung thin, and I find myself in a block most of the time. However, when I heard word of Nature Speaks by Clean4Change Kentucky, I took it as a sign to start fresh, and light that writing flame inside me again.”
Mother Earth
Ilana Drake
Ilana Drake is a rising sophomore at Vanderbilt University originally from New York City. She is a student activist and writer, and her work has been published internationally in magazines such as Ms. , PBS NewsHour, and The 74. Ilana's poem is centered around the current Supreme Court Decision which limits the EPA's capabilities.
We Don’t Deserve the Earth
Kait Ferguson
My name is Kait and I am from Flatwoods, Kentucky. I am a sophomore at Berea College and I am studying Sociology as well as Child and Family Studies.
We Don’t Deserve the Earth was inspired by my research that I did while working on other Clean4Change projects. Although I already knew that the Earth is deteriorating, it became more concrete and solidified when I looked at statistics, and the more numbers I found, the more afraid I became. One common theme of my life is that, when something is too emotional or too uncertain for me to carry alone, I will turn it into art, and that is what I have done with this. Writing about what's happening will not fix it, but it can spread awareness in a way that is universal to many - through language.
