Tess Taylor is a self-described Poet Gardener – and if there is ever a season to feel the poetry of life in the garden and with the plants in every cell of your body, it’s springtime!
As a Poet Gardener, Tess is a person who sees both practices – of poetry and of gardening – as ways to reroute (or re-root?) ourselves to something that happens on a different scale than we experience most of our lives. She is also an award-winning poet and editor of a gorgeous anthology: "Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens and the Hands That Tend Them". .
Tess is as well the author of five celebrated poetry collections including "The
Misremembered World", "The Forage House", "Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange", "Rift Zone" (named a 2020 Boston Globe best book), and "Work & Days" (a 2016 NY Times best poetry book). Her work as a cultural critic appears in Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, CNN, The New York Times, and more.
She has taught widely, from UC Berkeley to Queen’s University in Belfast, and served as an on-air poetry reviewer for NPR’s All Things Considered for over a decade. She recently published her first full-length poetry anthology: "Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens and the Hands that Tend Them", a collection of contemporary gardening poems for an era of climate crisis. A staged adaptation of her book of poems about Dorothea Lange will launch at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art in 2025.
Her next book, Come Bite, will be published in 2026.
In addition to all of the above, Tess is also the Poet Laureate of El Cerrito, California. She was selected to serve as the City's fourth Poet Laureate during the Arts and Culture Commission meeting in February of 2024. As as Academy of American Poets’ Poet Laureate Fellowship awardee for this role, she hosts literary events in schools and community centers.
Among the many things we speak about in our wide ranging conversation, Tess shares how the "seasonal" structure of Leaning Toward Light sometimes taught her about surprising seasons that garden life brings us – like seasons of reverie, dreaming, and grief.
In honor of Women’s History Month AND the vernal equinox arriving next week on March 20th, I could not be more pleased to share Tess's works and days forward with you all. Enjoy!
Follow along with Tess Online:
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All Photos courtesy of Tess Taylor, all rights reserved.
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JOIN US again next week, when we welcome Spring and the shift of the Vernal Equinox in conversation with writer/walker Brooke Williams whose newest work is Encountering Dragonfly – notes on the practice of Re-enchantment . That's right here, next week. Listen in!
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, it's Jennifer-
Yes spring is showing up again this year – you’ve got to love her consistency. On March 20th in the wee hours of morning across the US the Vernal Equinox will us over the line moving us toward ever longer daylight hours!
IN both reflection and celebration – CP is gathering once again as a virtual community on March 18th at 4 pm Pacific/7 Pm Eastern to commune with one another, support one another, and our human impulse to garden. Really hoping to once again have time with you all – the event is free but space is limited so you will need to register prior to 5 pm March 17th.
Our featured speaker for this communing will be Abra Lee reflecting on one of our themes this year: JOY – from all sides – when we need it, when we don’t. As the head of horticulture of the historic Oakland Cemetery in Downtown Atlanta, Abra says she definitely sees this topic for a wide set of angles. We will also check in on our intentions set at the end of January and reset or adjust them as needed for our coming season. To commune with all of you in real time is one of my greatest joys. See you online on March 18th!
So this is one of Tess’s comments – and insights – that really landed through my listening to her onto my heart: "Life is too big – too big to really see, but in a garden you can see through our chosen plant friends and family a little bit of nature and the nature of life at a scale we can recognize – and through this we can become more comfortable and understanding about all of life – our own lives – the lives around us.".
Can we ever write enough odes to honor our full debt of gratitude to the
plants and our gardens for growing us? I could not….glad we are in this together Gardeners and Cultivators of Place – I need all the increased understanding I can get.
And now for this week’s Public growing Announcements:
March 13: Nature Journaling School with nature writer Janisse Ray is designed for you to process, document, and celebrate your life, gardens, spring, and the natural world around you. This series will focus on The Garden. Show up for an hour directed toward curiosity and wonder. You can come for one session or for all six, the vibe will be loving, inspirational, and hopeful!
I was super excited to get the announcement from Timber Press that they have released in the US the fabulous 30th edition of a classic garden book: Derek Jarman’s Garden. From artist and activist Derek Jarman, a visual and narrative exploration of his singular, paradisiacal garden, set in a most inhospitable place. So glad to see the distribution of this expand – fingers crossed we will have an upcoming episode about this – stay tuned!
And are you following some of the updates coming out of Mt. Cuba this spring
already – with results from their ongoing native plant trials? For those of us incorporating more and more interesting natives into our landscapes – Mt. Cuba (along with CalScape/California Native Plant Society, Denver Botanic, Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, Homegrown National Park, North Carolina Botanical, and of course the northeast’s Native Plant Trust) is a great source of needed information – and beauty! Who are your go-to native plants for garden sources? I’d love to hear…and share.
More next week – until then – keep growing BIG G gardeners – we all need you.
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