The Gift of Animals
Poems of Love, Loss, and Connection
Published on 1. April 2025
212 pages
978-1-63586-857-9 (ISBN)
Description
This unique collection of poems from diverse contemporary voices offers a range of perspectives on humans' complex relationship with animals, celebrating and bearing witness to the lives of animals both wild and domestic.
Animals have long been a source of inspiration, sustenance, and companionship, and poems about and for animals are among the oldest traditions across human cultures. This collection of contemporary poems adds to this ancient lineage, celebrating animals for their beauty and intelligence; empathizing over their suffering; and hoping for their future, which is entwined with our own. The presence of an animal is a gift. The loss of an animal is a grief. To share such feelings through poetry is to create a community of caring for the creatures that accompany us on Earth.
The Gift of Animals includes poems by some of today's most beloved poets, including Ellen Bass, Lucille Clifton, Michael Collier, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Camille Dungy, Mark Doty, Nick Flynn, Jorie Graham, Joy Harjo, Terrance Hayes, Arthur Sze, Yusef Komunyakaa, Ada Limón, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Craig Santos Perez, and Paisley Rekdal.
This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
Animals have long been a source of inspiration, sustenance, and companionship, and poems about and for animals are among the oldest traditions across human cultures. This collection of contemporary poems adds to this ancient lineage, celebrating animals for their beauty and intelligence; empathizing over their suffering; and hoping for their future, which is entwined with our own. The presence of an animal is a gift. The loss of an animal is a grief. To share such feelings through poetry is to create a community of caring for the creatures that accompany us on Earth.
The Gift of Animals includes poems by some of today's most beloved poets, including Ellen Bass, Lucille Clifton, Michael Collier, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Camille Dungy, Mark Doty, Nick Flynn, Jorie Graham, Joy Harjo, Terrance Hayes, Arthur Sze, Yusef Komunyakaa, Ada Limón, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Craig Santos Perez, and Paisley Rekdal.
This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
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04/2025
Storey Publishing LLC
€24.00
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Person
Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of five nonfiction books, including Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit, and five poetry collections including Stairway to Heaven and Science and Other Poems, which won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets; as well as the editor of Poetry of the American West and co-editor of The Colors of Nature. Her work also appears in the Norton Book of Nature Writing and Best American Science and Nature Writing. Deming served as poet-in-residence at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Florida, where she curated a poetry installation, and as poet-in-residence at the Milwaukee Public Library and Milwaukee Museum where she curated a poetry installation along with programming shared by the two institutions. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, former Agnese Nelms Haury Chair of Environment and Social Justice, she is currently Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona.
Content
Foreword: On Giving & Receiving, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Animals & the Creative Spirit, by Alison Hawthorne Deming
Praise
Magic Words, translated by Edward Field
How to Triumph Like a Girl, Ada Limon
Ode to the Fish, Ellen Bass
Elephants, Indran Amirthanayagam
Wild Gratitude, Edward Hirsch
The Lark's Nest, John Clare
Kissing a Horse, Robert Wrigley
The Water Witch on Salvation, Crystal Wilkinson
Koalas, Kelly Grace Thomas
Dog, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Love Poem: Chimera, Donika Kelly
Canto for the Chestnut-Eared Laughingthrush, Hai-Dang Phan
the earth is a living thing, Lucille Clifton
Lament
The Flight of Quetzalcoatl, translated by Jerome Rothenberg
A Lament for the Dead Pets of Our Childhood, A.E. Stallings
Sick Fox, Mark Jarman
The Mother, Lindsay Stewart
The Last Safe Habitat, Craig Santos Perez
For a Coming Extinction, W.S. Merwin
Mr. Cass and the Crustaceans, Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Pity the Sweet Swine Its Succulence, Vievee Francis
Elk, Robert Wrigley
That Buffalo Hair Fedora, Kimberly Blaeser
Smokey, Ian Ramsey
The Voice of the Manatee, Elizabeth Bradfield
Companionship
Listening to the Moon, Yosa Buson, translated by Robert Hass
from Jubilate Agno, Christopher Smart
Yoko, Thom Gunn
Two Kerosene Lanterns, Jane Hirshfield
The Art of the Dog, Linda Pastan
Tecolote, Jose Hernandez Diaz
Turkeys, Bucks and Bulls, Kamella Cruz
Drawl and Hum, Tina Mozelle Braziel
Boats gleaning through cities at night, Michael Collier
from Nightsong, Ever Jones
A Sonnet at the Edge of the Reef, Craig Santos Perez
Weakness, Alden Nowlan
The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry
Fear and Vulnerability
from Hymns to Inana, Enheduana, translated by Sophus Helle
A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, Emily Dickinson
Nearly Every Invading Army Brought Pigs with Them to Feed Their Soldiers, sam sax
Black Flamingo, Jonny Teklit
Rabbits and Fire, Alberto Rios
Driving to Santa Fe, Paisley Rekdal
The Minks, Toi Derricotte
Rabbit, Oleh Lysheha, translated by Virlana Tkacz & Wanda Phipps
The Emmy Goes to the Seagull, Flying off with the Hot Wing in Front of the Chicken Spot?, Khadjiah Johnson
Carnivore, Todd Davis
Ice Anglers, Wang Jiaxin, translated by Arthur Sze
Little Mammoth, Mark Doty
The White-Headed Woodpecker, Sean Hill
Every Lion Until Now, Brian Bartlett
The Least Among Us
Go to the Ant, Proverbs
Characteristics of Life, Camille Dungy
Exotic Animals, Book for Children, Naomi Shihab Nye
Scorpions, Francesca Bell
St. Roach, Muriel Rukeyser
Worker, Nick Flynn
The Oyster, Francis Ponge, translated by C.K. Williams
Sloth Surprises, Brian Bartlett
Back to Denver, Manny Loley
The Spring Cricket Considers the Question of Negritude, Rita Dove
I Remember Galileo, Gerald Stern
Pseudacris Crucifer, Terrance Hayes
My Proteins, Jane Hirshfield
The Sacred
Prayer to the Sockeye Salmon, Alison Hawthorne Deming
Eagle Poem, Joy Harjo
Returning, Manny Loley
A Prayer to Talk to Animals, Nickole Brown
Come into Animal Presence, Denise Levertov
St Kevin and the Blackbird, Seamus Heaney
Blessing the Animals, Yusef Komunyakaa
Grizzly, Ellen Bass
Pied Beauty, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Anthropocene Blessing: Nightjar, Brittney Corrigan
Vulture, Robinson Jeffers
Like Jesus to the Crows, Vievee Francis
Contextual Education, Derek Sheffield
The Snakes of September, Stanley Kunitz
The Future of Animals
from Empedocles, translated by Dan Beachy-Quick
Extinction, David Baker
The Swimmers, Anne Haven McDonnell
Species Prepare to Exist After Money, Brenda Hillman
from Look at This Blue, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Not Everybody's Bestiary (Yet), Rebecca Morgan Frank
Playing with Bees, RK Fauth
Dear Fisher Cat (Martes pennanti), Natasha Saje
The Creation of the World by the Animals, Homero Aridjis, translated by George McWhirter
Can You, Josie Graham
If Past Becomes Future, Katharine Coles
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Credits
Animals & the Creative Spirit, by Alison Hawthorne Deming
Praise
Magic Words, translated by Edward Field
How to Triumph Like a Girl, Ada Limon
Ode to the Fish, Ellen Bass
Elephants, Indran Amirthanayagam
Wild Gratitude, Edward Hirsch
The Lark's Nest, John Clare
Kissing a Horse, Robert Wrigley
The Water Witch on Salvation, Crystal Wilkinson
Koalas, Kelly Grace Thomas
Dog, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Love Poem: Chimera, Donika Kelly
Canto for the Chestnut-Eared Laughingthrush, Hai-Dang Phan
the earth is a living thing, Lucille Clifton
Lament
The Flight of Quetzalcoatl, translated by Jerome Rothenberg
A Lament for the Dead Pets of Our Childhood, A.E. Stallings
Sick Fox, Mark Jarman
The Mother, Lindsay Stewart
The Last Safe Habitat, Craig Santos Perez
For a Coming Extinction, W.S. Merwin
Mr. Cass and the Crustaceans, Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Pity the Sweet Swine Its Succulence, Vievee Francis
Elk, Robert Wrigley
That Buffalo Hair Fedora, Kimberly Blaeser
Smokey, Ian Ramsey
The Voice of the Manatee, Elizabeth Bradfield
Companionship
Listening to the Moon, Yosa Buson, translated by Robert Hass
from Jubilate Agno, Christopher Smart
Yoko, Thom Gunn
Two Kerosene Lanterns, Jane Hirshfield
The Art of the Dog, Linda Pastan
Tecolote, Jose Hernandez Diaz
Turkeys, Bucks and Bulls, Kamella Cruz
Drawl and Hum, Tina Mozelle Braziel
Boats gleaning through cities at night, Michael Collier
from Nightsong, Ever Jones
A Sonnet at the Edge of the Reef, Craig Santos Perez
Weakness, Alden Nowlan
The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry
Fear and Vulnerability
from Hymns to Inana, Enheduana, translated by Sophus Helle
A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, Emily Dickinson
Nearly Every Invading Army Brought Pigs with Them to Feed Their Soldiers, sam sax
Black Flamingo, Jonny Teklit
Rabbits and Fire, Alberto Rios
Driving to Santa Fe, Paisley Rekdal
The Minks, Toi Derricotte
Rabbit, Oleh Lysheha, translated by Virlana Tkacz & Wanda Phipps
The Emmy Goes to the Seagull, Flying off with the Hot Wing in Front of the Chicken Spot?, Khadjiah Johnson
Carnivore, Todd Davis
Ice Anglers, Wang Jiaxin, translated by Arthur Sze
Little Mammoth, Mark Doty
The White-Headed Woodpecker, Sean Hill
Every Lion Until Now, Brian Bartlett
The Least Among Us
Go to the Ant, Proverbs
Characteristics of Life, Camille Dungy
Exotic Animals, Book for Children, Naomi Shihab Nye
Scorpions, Francesca Bell
St. Roach, Muriel Rukeyser
Worker, Nick Flynn
The Oyster, Francis Ponge, translated by C.K. Williams
Sloth Surprises, Brian Bartlett
Back to Denver, Manny Loley
The Spring Cricket Considers the Question of Negritude, Rita Dove
I Remember Galileo, Gerald Stern
Pseudacris Crucifer, Terrance Hayes
My Proteins, Jane Hirshfield
The Sacred
Prayer to the Sockeye Salmon, Alison Hawthorne Deming
Eagle Poem, Joy Harjo
Returning, Manny Loley
A Prayer to Talk to Animals, Nickole Brown
Come into Animal Presence, Denise Levertov
St Kevin and the Blackbird, Seamus Heaney
Blessing the Animals, Yusef Komunyakaa
Grizzly, Ellen Bass
Pied Beauty, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Anthropocene Blessing: Nightjar, Brittney Corrigan
Vulture, Robinson Jeffers
Like Jesus to the Crows, Vievee Francis
Contextual Education, Derek Sheffield
The Snakes of September, Stanley Kunitz
The Future of Animals
from Empedocles, translated by Dan Beachy-Quick
Extinction, David Baker
The Swimmers, Anne Haven McDonnell
Species Prepare to Exist After Money, Brenda Hillman
from Look at This Blue, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Not Everybody's Bestiary (Yet), Rebecca Morgan Frank
Playing with Bees, RK Fauth
Dear Fisher Cat (Martes pennanti), Natasha Saje
The Creation of the World by the Animals, Homero Aridjis, translated by George McWhirter
Can You, Josie Graham
If Past Becomes Future, Katharine Coles
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Credits
