Will Burns was named as one of the Faber and Faber New Poets for 2014. His first full collection, Country Music, was published in 2020, and his debut novel, The Paper Lantern, was published in July 2021. He was named as one of The Observer’s Top 10 Debut Novelists of 2021 and is the OmVed Gardens poet in residence.

Describe the nature around you.

I’m in my writing shed looking out of a window onto my garden. There have been robins, blackbirds and great tits flitting around all morning, long-tailed tits in the big elder that is right in the middle of mine and my neighbours fence. A blackcap in the pond an hour or so ago too and the usual wood pigeons waddling around. In terms of plants its snowbells and hellebores and just the start of a few green shoots here and there else. Plenty of what some people would call weeds too...

What lessons have you learned from nature?

I’m not sure if this counts as a specific ‘lesson’, but I do know that when I’m watching something in the natural world - and it could be something quiet quotidian like a red kite soaring over the village while I’m out buying milk - I just get this addictive little rush of contentedness which I think comes from a sort of in-the-moment understanding of the fact that the world is alive with so much other stuff than you and your worries, that it carries on, in its own brilliance, regardless. Perhaps this sounds perverse, but there’s something incredibly comforting to me, every now and then, to have this live reminder that I mean nothing at all in the grander scheme of things like red kites and bluebells and beech trees.

How can poetry heal ourselves and our communities?

Of course WH Auden wrote that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’, and to me that ’nothing' always seems to be an important part of what I think poetry does as a kind of rejection of, or alternative mode of thought to, our constant cultural insistence on economic growth and progress, whatever that might mean.

Poetry allows us the luxury of speech - heightened speech - about our lives, and our environment, allows us to build cognisance of those things that is to do with words and noticing, and to do with care. I don’t know about healing, really, but I think care is a good place to start.

What role could poetry play in the midst of our climate crisis?

I think it can provide access points to ways of thinking that are complicated, and so by definition refuse the over-simplification of thought that has brought us to this point. Simple ideas that have become orthodoxy such as ‘capitalism just works’, or marketing jargon, or meaningless rhetoric… poetry is the opposite of all that, in terms of how it approaches language, and so if it does have a role to play, a bit if perhaps, then it could be that it gives permission for complex thought, for complex speech.

How does nature guide your practice?

I suppose it's to do with how big a part nature, or the non-human world, plays in my everyday life. I walk every day and that’s a vital part of how I write, but I’d do it (the walking) anyway, and the same goes for the garden and the allotment and bird-watching and everything else. That’s all the life, which is the practise.

Which song, book or poem nurtured your relationship with nature?

My grandfather was probably my biggest influence in terms of learning about birds and animals, fishing… all that stuff. And this is going to sound rather paradoxical now, but he loved a book by Jim Corbett called The Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Corbett was a tracker and hunter who wrote about his experiences killing man eating tigers and leopards in India. Obviously there are huge problems with so much of the world he wrote from and into, but as a kid those stories kindled my love for the outdoors and wildlife.

Name a TV series, film, podcast or documentary that blew your mind.

Is it obvious to say anything David Attenborough has ever made? I’m not a huge TV or podcast or film person to be honest, but I’d happily re-watch any of his series. Particularly the birds. Anything involving birds has me hooked, I’m afraid...

Name a place where you feel most at ease.

The garden here in my cottage in Buckinghamshire. But in the interests of honesty, I’d also have to say my local pub.

Which rituals do you practice to keep you grounded?

I think probably walking is the closest thing I have to a ritual. I also think ritual plays a big part in the appeal of sports, but I’m too old for football or cricket these days sadly. The little rituals of marking out your run-up, shining the ball, packing your kit bag, cleaning your boots... those things still give me pleasure, though, even as memories.

What initiative have you heard of recently and you’d like everyone to support?

I live in the Chiltern Hills, and the most disheartening, locally meaningful, environmental issue is the constant degradation of our rivers in this country, particularly the chalks streams, of which we have a significant number in these hills. Chalk streams are a globally rare habitat, a wonderfully distinctive feature of the English countryside, and I think we should be doing all we can to preserve them. So I’d recommend visiting Charles Rangeley-Wilson’s website (https://chalkstreams.org) where there are details of lots of initiatives and projects.

Could you suggest someone else or other organisations you admire that we could approach for #TheNatureKind

I think Charles would be a good person to approach. He’s incredibly knowledgable, with a writing and conservation career to draw upon.

You can find out more on Will's website.