The Exhibit
The Nature of Our Times
Cleveland Public Library
September 12th 2025–April 22, 2026
The Nature of Our Times exhibit was a collaboration with Cleveland Public Library featuring poems included in the anthology, The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and other Natural Wonders. Published by Paloma Press in collaboration with the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and Poets for Science, this anthology is a companion to the United By Nature Initiative, a first-of-its-kind, national assessment of U.S. lands, waters, and wildlife.
The exhibit explores through poetry and images how nature shapes our lives, and how we can shape nature’s future.
Share Your Voice
Contribute to the “Pledge” community poem, based on the poem by Gary Snyder.
Poem
Selections
Originally envisioned as a companion to the first U.S. National Nature Assessment and now to the work of United By Nature, The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders gathers 210 voices from the arts, ecology, academia, and Indigenous communities from North America giving witness to how nature shapes our lives and how we can shape the future.
Science & Technology Louis Stokes Wing, 3rd Floor
- Jane Hirshfield, “Mosses”
- Paula J. Lambert, “On the Weight of the Soul, the Weight of a Cloud, the Weight of a Whale”
- Cathryn Essinger, “The Map Turtle”
- David Hassler, “Pledge”
- Marion Starling Boyer, “Tinkers Creek State Park”
- Myrna Stone, “Wild Onion”
- Jason Harris, “Bison Antiquus”
- Jeff Gundy, “Kingfisher, or How Certain Autumn Days Advocate for a Significant Realignment of the Human Project”
- Philip Metres, “Never Describe the Sky as Azure”
- Neil Carpathios, “Relic”
- Carrie George, “Invasive”
- Pauline Thornton, “The Felling, Solstice 2015”
- Abby Wheeler, “Geese”
- Barbara Sabol, “Wonder Enough”
- Luisa A. Igloria, “Bats French-kiss with Mouthfuls of Blood”
- Hannah Stephenson, “Microclimates”
- Julia Kolchinsky, “Why have children when the world is ending.”
Lobby & Indoor Reading Garden Louis Stokes Wing, 1st Floor
- Kimberly Blaeser, “Because we story ourselves in water”
- Lucille Lang Day, “At Lake Tahoe”
- Aileen Cassinetto, “In Half Moon Bay”
- Gabriela A. Igloria, “Archive for a City Under Water”
- Jennifer Browne, “Somateria mollissima / Common eider”
Literature Main Building, 2nd Floor
- Jessica Jones, “Fire Crew at Round Butte Road, Ronan Montana (2015)”
- Laura Grace Weldon, “Common Ground”
- Mistee St. Clair, “In Defense of Invasive Species”
- Yvette Wiley, “Life Without End”
- Charles Malone, “Mulberry”
Lobby Main Building, 1st Floor
- Kari Gunter-Seymour, “Ten Miles North of Lore City, Guernsey County, Ohio”
- Ray McNiece, “Passenger”
Poem Gallery
