Writers Who Inspire Us: Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Writing Love Poems to Nature
“If you let yourself be open to wonder, I mean really open yourself to being able to receive it, it’s the closest thing to falling in love I think—I feel like you can’t help but want to protect that animal or plant or person.”
—Aimee Nezhukumatathil from World of Wonders: An Interview With Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is an author, editor, and one of the youngest poets to become a Professor of English. She has published four poetry collections, a chapbook, and a book of essays, World of Wonders:In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, which was my introduction to her work. I was initially drawn to the book because of the beautiful illustrations by Fumi Nakamura. Each essay in this book is dedicated to one species and most are accompanied by an expressive portrait from Nakamura. In these essays, Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores her childhood spent in nature, the many places she has called home, and the many animals she has called a friend.
I have always been enthralled by wildlife, from an early age I have felt very connected to the outdoors. In my undergraduate years, I pursued a degree in biology; spending a summer catching swallows in Wyoming and another summer healing fledglings at a wildlife rehab. I fell asleep to wolves howling in the Tetons and went to the woods to hear the sweet song of a wood thrush. There is a rush of pride in my chest when my friends ask me to identify a bird by a picture or its call. Along the way, I have made many friends who shared this sense of awe of the natural world, but never had I felt a writer truly capture this feeling until I read World of Wonders.
I was immediately captured by Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s reverence of animals ranging from the axolotl, to the cactus wren, to the whale shark. Many of her subjects are emblems of her past; a tree she watched flower, countless summers watching the fireflies, a school assignment about peacocks. Others are alarm bells signaling the scary outlook for our planet and all the beautiful creatures that live on it. The essay titled southern cassowary is short and not only gives a brief life history of the southern cassowary, but also mourns the lack of acknowledgement this fantastical bird receives and the loss of a majority of its habitat. What does it take, Nezhukumatathil asks the reader, for us to care about a cassowary? A zoo, perhaps? How do we share the deep booming call of the cassowary, which we can’t hear but we can feel the vibrations of in our chest?
Aimee Nezhukumatathil reminds me why it is a writer’s duty to write about what they love, because without her poems, some of these species’ songs would remain unsung. It is clear these essays are written by a poet, the words cut to the bone with their accuracy. Her essays about fireflies fill me with nostalgia for summer nights catching the bright bugs. They also leave me with the sorrow that firefly populations will continue to disappear until one day my children may not know this joy. Aimee Nezhukumatathil writes of even the common monarch butterfly and cara cara orange as exquisite creatures, not only because she personally enjoys them, but also because their presence is fleeting. She also questions who is allowed to enjoy these wonders and how people of color are excluded from safe natural spaces. She reaches out, painting a beautiful picture of the natural world to share with those who did not live outdoors or have parents who taught them the names of beetles. It is an invitation to fall in love with nature just as she has.
I recently got my hands on a copy of Oceanic, her most recent poetry collection published in 2018. She continues to dazzle me with the same ability to pick the most emotive and rich words to convey the beauty of the natural world. In these poems, our lives are a footnote against a vast ocean. A small scallop being tufted about. Her ability to take words I had only heard in the lecture hall and meld them into her poetry is magic. Words like lanceolate, umbo, and chalcopyrite become lyric in skilled hands. These poems are love letters to animals, her romantic partners, her children. The pleasure of tracing your hand along the veins in a leaf can be felt on these pages.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s work reignited the ornithologist in me. I once again am looking to the skies and this time instead of just trying to count species, I try to name their song and describe it to someone else who can marvel at the wonders that are with us all. She reminds us of the power of nature writing and how it can stir within us the desire to protect the natural world. You will pick your head up from the page feeling more connected to the many creatures we share this earth with.
Recommended Reading
World of Wonders:In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
World of Wonders Coloring Pages - available on Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s website
Lace & Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens - A chapbook written by Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Ross Gay
About Katie Iser
Katie Iser is a project manager and writer living in Baltimore, Maryland. She recently received her Masters in writing from Towson University. She has been published in Ligeia Magazine, Next Page Ink Magazine, and enjoys writing creative nonfiction. In her free time enjoys watching birds, playing video games, and petting her cats.
