Earth Day

By Jane Yolen b. 1939 Jane Yolen

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me.

Each blade of grass,

Each honey tree,

Each bit of mud,

And stick and stone

Is blood and muscle,

Skin and bone.

And just as I

Need every bit

Of me to make

My body fit,

So Earth needs

Grass and stone and tree

And things that grow here

Naturally.

That’s why we

Celebrate this day.

That’s why across

The world we say:

As long as life,

As dear, as free,

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me.

Source: The Three Bears Holiday Rhyme Book (Houghton Mifflin, 1995)

Biography

Science fiction and fantasy writer, editor, children’s author, and poet Jane Yolen was born in New York City. She grew up in Hollywood, New York City, and Newport News, Virginia, and earned a BA at Smith College and an MA in education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Yolen’s stories use rhythm and rhyme in conjunction with elements of folklore and fantasy. In an article for the Huffington Post, she stated, “I write . . .

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