Seeing, Hearing and Celebrating Animals in Poetry: Nickole Brown recites Donkey Elegies and Mercy

About this episode

Nickole Brown discusses her poetry and the importance of recognizing the individuality of animals in society.

Raised in Kentucky now residing in Asheville,NC Nickole Brown -- poet, writing teacher, and animal rescue volunteer -- shares her love for our wild animal and farmed animal kin with "In Tune to Nature" host Carrie Freeman in this lovely 50-minutes conversation. We enjoy hearing Nickole reading the emotive poem "Mercy" from her award-winning chapbook "To Those Who Were our First Gods" and three poems as essays from her book "The Donkey Elegies." Carrie discusses the many clever, compassionate, and compelling messages found within each poem that truly helps us hear and see fellow animals for the beautiful individuals they are. We question how our society may be diminishing the worth of other animal communities, as we sometimes do with fellow humans. Hopefully we can build solidarity between humans of all classes and animals of all other species. You can read some of Nickole's poetry and find all her books at her website https://www.nickolebrown.org/ . And eco writers/poets may want to check out the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, a conference she has organized in the Western NC mountains (named after the Hellbender salamander in the Appalachian mountains that she loves). "In Tune to…

People in this episode

Host: Carrie Freeman

Guest: Nickole Brown

Topics covered

• poetry
• animal rights
• compassion
• society
• nature
• writing

Keywords

• Nickole Brown
• poetry
• animal rescue
• Mercy
• The Donkey Elegies
• compassion
• society

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hellbender Gathering of Poets, Radio Free Georgia

Books & works: Mercy, To Those Who Were our First Gods, The Donkey Elegies

Places: Kentucky, Asheville, NC, Western NC, Appalachian mountains

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