Where the Wild Things Live also reflects on the creative side of humanity’s connection to nature. Quotations, an ancient legend and two very special interviews explore the beauty and inspiration to be found there.

Mary Oliver
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver is recognized “as an unparalleled poet of the natural world.” As a child Oliver was inspired by both nature and literature. These elements translated into a “life-long love affair with the natural world” which she expresses in her poems and essays.

In Where the Wild Things Live, Oliver reads excerpts from four poems, her words matched to a visual essay: a white heron from coastal Florida; rain in the bottomland hardwood forests of eastern Arkansas; snow geese over the deserts of New Mexico; and the nature of water itself – whether living or not – at Oregon Islands.

She feels that we cannot appreciate great literature without an understanding of, and personal experience with nature, which she identifies as a great warehouse of inspiration.
For Oliver the natural world is not a place just for recreation. “It’s a place where we can disappear into something much greater than ourselves.”

Paul Winter
Grammy winning saxophonist and composer, Paul Winter, pioneered the use of natural sounds and actual animal voices in his music. He has even howled with wolves.

In Where the Wild Things Live, Winter relives the first time he heard the singing of humpbacked whales. He regards it as a life changing experience. “It made me want to hear the whole symphony of the earth,” and inspired him to share that experience with others through his music.

Winter feels it unfortunate that hearing so often takes a back seat to the visual. He says the vibrations of sound waves affect us physically and…if those sounds are animal voices…they can enter us and move our souls.

By demonstrating that seeing wildlife when also hearing their voices makes a wonderfully rich experience, Where the Wild Things Live encourages viewers to listen for these voices in their own lives.