I recently pulled my car over. Ada Limon, US poet laureate, was filling the airwaves with educator inspiration. 

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Her poem, In praise of Mystery, a poem for Europa, is etched on the Europa Clipper Space shuttle, headed right now to search for water on Jupiter’s second moon. “How good it is to feel small in the vastness of space, and stare into wonder,” she shared when asked to write a poem that connects Earth with Europa and includes the connection, “we too, are made of water”.

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Once a native Californian, Ada recalls a love for February winters in Sonoma, and explained how when she moved to Kentucky it was being curious about Nature that helped her begin to feel at home - beholding kudzu, cardinals, and frost- coated barns, new to her eye,  helped her feel more grounded, familiar and comforted. 

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She then steered me to consider two ways into experiencing the natural world: intentional and daily. Intentional is when we make a plan to go out into parks and wooded areas, and fill ourselves with the wonder and tones around us. Ada Limon’s National Parks project has created poetry prompts and art installments within the grandeur of the natural world.

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But it’s the term Daily Nature -  no matter where we are - next to metal fencing on a city street or shaded by skyscrapers inside our urban school buildings - turning to relational witnessing of what is out there, what is living, what is life-giving that stuck today. Yes! Students could derive inspiration for their connection through  “A bird sitting on a bus stop”. A gnarled weed spiraling out of a cement wall.  The patch of grey ground under one potted plant.

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Limon asks: What is it to “make Nature not always the epiphanic engine of our soul? To step aside for a moment and let go of an (middle class/white) affection for romanticism, and instead, be with it?

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This Poet Laureate pushes us to consider what it is that makes and creates our relationship with Nature. “What is witnessed and being witnessed -  where I’m looking at a bird and that bird is looking at me.” 

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What happens to us is an exchange that feels different than "I am witness - that feels more powerful - to have a relationship in which I am witness and being witnessed.” And because of that, I am actually nature and I am part of this. 

And what damage have we done when we've forgotten that.”

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Here are 6 invitations for students in cities to engage in Nature through a variety of ways and explore Limon’s idea of  “Daily Nature”:

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1. Europa Poem Pair Share. 

Share NASA’s Europa Clipper  Mission will be completed in 2034. How old will your students be? Ask them to imagine where they will be and based on their interests, if they would notice this kind of news? Have students read the poem in pairs.  Ask: What phrases in this poem speak to each of you? What’s similar/what’s different about your choices? Invite the pair to draw an image or create a collage, combining elements of the phrases they chose.

A Poem for Europa by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón

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2. Daily Nature outside the door, in the City.

We can always be curious about the natural world no matter where we are. Nature is everywhere. Head outside. Take clipboards with you. While students stand outside on a sidewalk, maybe surrounded by concrete and buildings, or even near a busy street corner, or look outside from a window, ask them to focus closely and use their senses to connect with something from the Natural world. 

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The quality of the wind or stillness; the tone of the air; the shades of sky and clouds; the heat off the season’s light, that bird on the bus stop; cracks in the ground; damp or trampled leaves, an abandoned nest in a far off tree, barren or budding branches, patterns created by the negative space of the leaves.

What are they reminded of?

What do they wonder about?

What do they wish it to tell or explain to them?

How might Nature be seeing them at that moment? telling them?

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3. Plant Connection and Belonging

Do IFSEL’s lesson,

Whats in a Name.pptx Then, shift the focus during the next class meeting and challenge students to research and know the names of 3 house plants, trees, or bushes outside they pass by daily. These can be near or far away,  inside the school building, at home, or traveling to school. The goal is to know the plants everyday and/or botanical name. Then ask them to say it, and even use it “in greeting” the plant, as they would do with a classmate.

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Suggest students observe/check in on the plant’s leaves, dust, dryness. Be curious and wonder about it, daily/weekly in a kind of “greeting” and noticing. Be next to or near the plant, if possible. Sketch, photograph or write freely about your wondering. Consider that you are “knowing” each other - a relationship and two way connection - both witnessing it and “being witnessed” by the plant, and that in a way, the plant now is “seen” and you belong to each other.

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4. Read and share about National Parks. 

Find out more about U.S. Poet Laureate’s National Park:  “You Are Here” Poetry Project

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5. Nature Science and Awe

Read passages to students on the marvels of plant life from the extraordinary books, The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoe Schlanger and/or The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. 

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In Lighteaters, page 107

Scientists discovered that the sound of a caterpillar chewing sends miniscule vibrations through the leaves. Analysis of the leaves in a lab showed “defensive” compounds throughout the plant. Plants could “hear” this specific predatory caterpillar and did not respond with those chemicals to non predatory caterpillars. Tested with other natural sounds and of different caterpillars, only the sound of the predatory caterpillar’s chewing on the arabidopsis caused it to respond specifically and exclusively to it. The entire plant is showing signs of acting “brainlike”, able to show cognition and store a kind of memory for its survival. 

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In Lighteaters, page 111

When water was pumped toward the plants, scientists found that during this kind of replenishment, it was only the live sound of water running that caused nearly every pea plant to grow toward the sound of the water, not when water was reaching the plants through a plastic pipe.

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6. Sounds, Senses and Tones Around Us

Limon describes the sound of rolling trash bins as “urban thunder”.

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Try this simple, expanded sensory experience for writing or sharing together.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Sensory Awareness

5 things they can see - up close, under their feet, up above them, to the side

4 things they can hear - off in the distance

3 things they can smell or imagine as having a smell

2 things they can almost touch and the textures evoked

1 thing they could almost taste and the sweetness, bitterness evoked

Then ask, if Nature were inside any of these senses here and now, what sense would it be showing up in and what makes you receive the natural world that way today?

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In the upcoming May 7 Teaching with Nature Workshop we will have experiences engaging with Nature under trees, on trails, with wildlife as large as deer and as small as tadpoles among rocks and streams. The lessons shared will be transferable to schools whether you are in an urban setting or near a park. 

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