(typewriter clicks) (typewriter whirs) (bell dings) (typewriter clicks) (gentle music) - [Aimee] Hi, I'm Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and this is "World of Wonders."

This is a collection of illustrated nature essays that celebrate my love for all the weird and strange plants and animals on this planet.

(gentle music) - [J.T.]

Can you tell us a little bit about the book?

- You know, I like to say the book starts and ends with love.

Something happened in me where I just, I couldn't fit what I wanted to say in a poem anymore.

And I just needed that space to kind of unfurl, to breathe, and to extend my questions a little bit further.

I didn't want to feel the tyranny of a line break anymore.

I wanted to celebrate what I loved, and to also kind of celebrate being curious in the world, having a sense of wonder.

(gentle music) - What about our environment shapes us?

- It's this act of noticing and looking, like, really, really looking.

I think it's so important to get that slowdown, to get that stillness.

And I love social media, I love being connected, but I also believe that it does our hearts and our heads so much good when you unplug a little bit, and you actually, you start to see that, "Oh, this would not be the greatest place to put a new bank, because this is a habitat for warblers."

When you start seeing that animals are connected to us, that plants are connected to us, and when you start being able to name them, not just, "Oh, there's some birds there, I saw a fish," you start feeling a tenderness, and you start feeling a connectedness.

(gentle music) - For more of my conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, come to AWordOnWords.org.

And keep reading.

(bell dings) - [Aimee] You know, the word poet means to make.

And so what I tell my students is, you don't have to necessarily make with words.

You can make a pie, you can make a sketch.

I feel like if you are actually intentional about making things in your life, that helps, honestly.

You're making a little bit more beauty in the world than there was yesterday.