WONDER, a poetry and photo book by ecologist John Pickering

WONDER is a book of the special places where knowledge of science and the deep well of mystery and beauty meet. It is a book that Gene would recommend, with an emphasis on the natural world that surrounds us if we take the time to look. This soulfully constructed volume is a work of uncommon scope. It quietly but authoritatively nudges the reader toward feeling the Universe unfolding — a planet teeming with life and an infinitude of miracles. This is a gentle work, deeply engaging, puzzling, beautiful, and somehow monumental.

 

Ecologist JOHN PICKERING (University of Georgia, Athens) has assembled a book of his own photographs and poems into a meditation on nature and man’s place in its marvels. His intricate, full-color photography — a small sample of thousands of images taken over decades — invite close examination of a world often too small and too transient to observe.

 

WONDER is an impressive introduction to the buzzing, thrumming, chirping world around us every day.  Pickering writes: “The predators, insects, spiders, the bees and more need a safe place that they can thrive, and in return the ecosystem has these functions like carbon capture, cleansing water, pollination and recreation that we all benefit from.” The beautiful photographs and accompanying poems of WONDER invite the reader to “go and see” this amazing planet we all call home.