I’d gone out to rake leaves, lay compost and weed the artichokes we grow on the strip between the sidewalk and the street. I’d been a bit impatient, grumpy even, hacking away. I also discovered that ...

A few months ago, I began making my way through the complete set of Emily Dickinson's 1,789 poems. Right from the start, I was struck by how often commonplace plants and animals—robins, bumblebees, ...