bright wildflowers on a hillside next to mountains, valleys and trees

Environmental Poems to Read & Share in Celebration of Earth Day

While Earth Day is a time to reflect on the seriousness of climate change and global warming, it should also be an opportunity to express gratitude for Earth’s beauty and the ways we benefit from the health of the Earth. The lakes that provide drinking water, forests to hike in, oceans to swim in on summer vacations. It’s a time to remember all the reasons why we’re protecting the Earth in the first place.

Poets have a way of pointing out and celebrating the simple wonders in nature, so we thought we’d share some of their words that provide a moment of joy and inspiration.

Below are a few uplifting environmental poems that can be shared with friends, read at Earth Day events, or printed out for personal keepsake.


We’ve also included the text-based version of each of these environmental poems so that you can copy and paste them in case you would like to print them out. We suggest something eco-friendly such as seed paper that grows wildflowers when planted instead of leaving waste.


Earth Day

I am the Earth
And the Earth is me.
Each blade of grass,
Each honey tree,
Each bit of mud,
And stick and stone
Is blood and muscle,
Skin and bone.

And just as I
Need every bit
Of me to make
My body fit,
So Earth needs
Grass and stone and tree
And things that grow here
Naturally.

That’s why we
Celebrate this day.
That’s why across
The world we say:
As long as life,
As dear, as free,
I am the Earth
And the Earth is me.

– Jane Yolen

an environmental poem called Back to Nature by E. F. Hayward

Back to Nature

I love to dwell in forest wild,
Where giant pine trees pierce the sky;
A beauty spot where Nature smiled,
A fitting place to live and die;

– E. F. Hayward

an environmental poem called On the Grasshopper and Cricket by John Keats

On the Grasshopper and Cricket

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s–he takes the lead
In summer luxury,–he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

– John Keats

The Gladness of Nature

Is this a time to be cloudy and sad,
When our mother Nature laughs around;
When even the deep blue heavens look glad,
And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?

– William Cullen Bryant

an environmental poem called "Nature" Is What I See by Emily Dickinson

“Nature” Is What We See

“Nature” is what we see—
The Hill—the Afternoon—
Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—
Nay—Nature is Heaven—
Nature is what we hear—
The Bobolink—the Sea—
Thunder—the Cricket—
Nay—Nature is Harmony—
Nature is what we know—
Yet have no art to say—
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.

– Emily Dickinson

an environmental poem called For the Children by Gary Snyder

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us,
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

– Gary Snyder

an environmental poem called The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

The Peace of Wild Things

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


Learn more about this special paper made by Botanical PaperWorks that uses post-consumer materials and is embedded with seeds so that it will grow when planted!

You can find seed paper sheets for eco-friendly papercraft projects from Botanical PaperWorks. We have a variety of seed options, including wildflower, herb and veggie, and over 25 seed paper colors. Join our mailing list to receive emails with freebies, projects, coupons, green living tips, and decor ideas and follow us on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and Pinterest

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