Love Letters to Poetry | “Earth, I Thank You”
How perfect that National Poetry Month in the US is in April, just like Earth Month.
Slow down. Pay attention. Everything is connected.
I chose this poem because it does all that, and more. It’s a potent love note to the earth, and all the good things in it that make poetry.
Earth, I Thank You
by Anne Spencer
Earth, I thank you
for the pleasure of your language
You’ve had a hard time
bringing it to me
from the ground
to grunt thru the noun
To all the way
feeling seeing smelling touching
--awareness
I am here!
Who was Anne Spencer?
Anne Spencer was a poet, teacher, librarian, and activist. She was a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, a 20th century movement of poets, authors, artists, and intellectuals that helped change American culture. Poetry played a major role in this, particularly poets whose words touched so many lives beyond the classroom, like Langston Hughes.
Until recently, many of the women who were poets of the Harlem Renaissance had been overlooked by history. Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance by poet Nikki Grimes has thankfully changed this. Anne Spencer is being rediscovered, as Zora Neale Hurston was, as a trailblazer in her times. Anne published many poems during her lifetime, and they are often about the natural world.
Today, the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum is a national landmark you can visit. It is also the only known restored garden by an African American.
Writing a poem inspired by another poem is a classic way that poets say thank you—to each other and to poetry! Here’s an example of a Golden Shovel, a form of poetry invented by Terrance Hayes, who won a MacArthur genius grant, to honor poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize.
This Golden Shovel was written by Nikki Grimes and inspired by Anne Spencer’s poem.
Sweet Sister
by Nikki Grimes
Clay creatures, we forget our sisterhood with earth
as if we could survive without her nourishment. I
know better, but did I always? I thank
her now. Sink your teeth into a peach, and so will you!
Imagine a world without rosemary or rose, even for
a moment. Where would the flavor or the
fragrance be? How we’d miss the quiet pleasure
earth brings to nose and tongue, of
which we are not worthy. Earth, your
generosity deserves to be met with Love’s language.
“Sweet Sister,” was published in Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2021.
Writing Prompt
Write your own Golden Shovel inspired either of these two poems, or by one of these poems about the earth.
Why do you think the Anne Spencer chose the verb “grunt” for this poem? Would you use another verb, and if so, why?
What does the last line of “Earth, I Thank You” mean to you?
Write a poem about the earth’s special language. What is it saying?
Think about a garden you have seen or visited. Describe it in a poem using all of your senses.
How is a garden a way of saying thank you to the earth?
April can be such a generous month. Earth and poetry, I thank you.
