🌿 Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry edited by Camille T. Dungy
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
“Black Nature” is the first anthology to focus on nature writing by African American poets. Camille T. Dungy has selected 180 poems from 93 poets that provide unique perspectives on American social and literary history to broaden our concept of nature poetry and African American poetics.
A truly reflective collection of poetry that embraces the beauty, the struggle, and the complicated history of nature and the African American people. With sections titled “Nature, Be With Us” to “Forsaken of the Earth”, this should be on every poetry lovers shelf. These poems have such a powerful impact on how nature is viewed from a non-white lens and they made me consider a type of nature I hadn’t considered before.
Side note: My 3 favorite poems were “The Haunted Oak” by Paul Laurence Dunbar; “the earth is a living thing” by Lucille Clifton; and “Miscarriage in October with Ladybugs” by Amber Flora Thomas.