Tangled in Beauty: Contemplative Nature Poems

This debut collection of thirty-eight nature poems by gifted young poets, Isabel Joy Kim and Siona Prasad, includes poetic reflections on the tangled beauty of the natural world and her inhabitants. Accompanied by Ms. Kim’s striking black-and-white photographs and illustrations, the book is organized by season—opening in winter, closing in fall—and each section begins with a collaborative poem composed jointly by Ms. Kim and Ms. Prasad. The book’s poems are topically as much about foxes, herons, snow, or trees as they are about companionship, solitude, loss, or freedom. Its poetic forms range from the spare haiku to irrepressible free verse with a pair of poems paying homage to William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Ms. Kim and Ms. Prasad’s keen poetic sensibilities suffuse each poem and offer the reader a window into their fresh, rich perceptions of nature’s entangling beauty. This jewel of a book contains something to delight both the young and young at heart.