Poetry in Nature with Emilie Lygren (Nov. 13, 2025) • John Muir Laws

April is National Poetry Month in the United States! Let’s get out our words and connect with nature!

“I love being in the room with just-born poems!” ~Emilie Lygren, 13 Nov. 2025

Join John Muir Laws and poet/author Emilie Lygren for a discussion of her new book of poetry. Let’s learn about her process and how to incorporate some of those ideas into our own nature journaling.

“Once I Was a Stone” is an intimate portrait of gender nonconformity rooted in the context of childhood and the natural world. With an honest and hopeful tone, Emilie Lygren grapples with the complexities of selfhood, power, and loss, offering insight on our intricate relationship with Earth’s ecosystems.

Emilie Lygren is a nonbinary poet and educator whose work is grounded in curiosity and reverence. Her poems have appeared in over twenty literary journals and anthologies, and her first book of poetry, What We Were Born For, was selected as the Poetry Foundation’s monthly book pick in 2022. Currently, Emilie is a professor of creative writing, a poet in the schools, and at work on an anthology of poems on mental health for teens. For more of her work and words, visit:

Connect with Emilie!
+ Emilie’s website, including her poetry and books:
+ Emilie’s books, including “What We Were Born For”, “Once I Was a Stone”, and “How to Teach Nature Journaling”: books/
+ Newsletter signup!
+ Emilie’s new Patreon!!!

Lawrence Hall of Science’s BEETLES Project:

Poets and writers mentioned in conversation: Susan G. Wooldridge, Billy Collins, William Stafford, Naomi Shihab Nye

Bertolt Brecht, “Everything Changes”