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

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 Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  While there, consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial, indie radio station, run largely by volunteers like me. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like donkeys! Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff or volunteers. Photo Credit: Donald Schuster took this lovely image of Nickole and Gulliver Background audio captured by Carrie of birdsong in Suches, GA and a hawk in Atlanta.