Happy Earth Day! Obviously every day should be Earth Day, but I think the planet deserves a special holiday too. Especially since humanity seems so determined to do harm. Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a Georgic poem about agricultural and using the land responsibly. I’ve tried to blend it with the Writer’s Digest prompt to write an animal fable poem.

Earthworm Offers Farming Advice

When you dig, do it with purpose.

Keep soil aerated, filtrated.

Soft brown dirt you can hold

in your hand, raise to your nose

to catch a whiff of genesis.

Give back to the earth

more than she gives you.

It’s a short poem today because I’m about to leave for a writing workshop with Griffin award-winning poet Jane Munro. Lucky me! It was at one of these fine Edmonton Poetry Festival workshops two years ago that I had the pleasure of meeting poet Naomi McIlwraith. Her poems incorporate beautiful tributes to family and to her Métis ancestry, and are always conveyed with such rich detail. But perhaps the most wonderful thing about much of her writing is that she incorporates English with Cree. Check out a few here, including one of my favourites, “nôhtâwiy opîkiskwêwin – Father Tongue”