Poetry Circle & Connect: The Peace of Wild Things

For as long as there has existed the written word, people have written about the natural world. To explore their connection with and deepen their understanding of it. To express an appreciation for its beauty and to raise awareness about issues that threaten it. To reflect on their place within the larger ecosystem that includes us all.

Join us on the overlook hill at ChesLen Preserve (weather permitting) to celebrate National Poetry Month with an open share of nature-inspired poems. Share your own poems, the poems of others you appreciate, or simply listen.  

This event will be one for conversation and connection, not critique; it is not intended as a workshop.  

We’ll gather at the Lenfest Center parking lot before walking to our space. 

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. 

– Wendell Berry