Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, Day Lucille Lang, Nolan Ruth

FIRE AND RAIN: ECOPOETRY OF CALIFORNIA, edited by Lucille Lang Day and Ruth Nolan, is not only a beautiful and thorough anthology but an homage to California, its varieties of landscapes, and the amazing poetry it has evoked. Like no other collection in its focus, it presents for the reader experiences of life and personal perspectives on the region while also providing an invaluable resource for teachers of creative writing and literature and the ecology, habitats, and species of the state.--Pattiann Rogers, recipient of the John Burroughs Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Nature Poetry

The battles environmentalists fight on land, in the legislatures, or in the courts are won or lost first in the human imagination, and the range, depth, and vitality of this selection of poems will take the imagination by storm. As Steve Kowit says in his poem Raven: Forgive me, / sweet earth, for not being shaken more often / out of the heavy sleep of the self. Wake up / Wake up scolds the raven, sailing off / over the canyon. Wake up Wake up Wake up These poems will indeed wake us up.--Malcolm Margolin

I went back to soulful, pristine, early James Taylor to make sure I was feeling the wet, cleansing urgency of Lucille Lang Day and Ruth Nolans burning anthology. Anthology, ecology, mythology, and all the ologies boil down to four-letter words--sacred kissing cousins--love and life. When I pull out Day and Nolans tarnished gold drawers of poetry and stories, I bask and bathe. My heart thumps. All over our world, we shiver and melt. Ive seen fire and Ive seen rain.--Al Young