If there’s a chance 
that Ants could dance 
they’d need to choose 
three pairs of shoes 
and six-legged pants 


				:::


				Dinosaurs were always 
				in the mood 
				to look for food 
				either spending hours 
				eating flowers 
				or chasing other Dinosaurs 


				:::


If you 
can’t make 
a Giraffe laugh 
don’t be glum 
Because 
a Giraffe 
can only hum 


				:::


				The world would be 
				so pleasant 
				if we lived 
				more in the present 
				like a Pheasant 
				
				
				:::

—From Jack Cooper’s book for children of all ages, Silly Lily’s Rhyming Adventures in Nature, edited by Dennis Hoerner, PhD, with illustrations by Greta Gonzalez. Excerpts appear here with permission.

Jack Cooper

is the author most recently of Silly Lily’s Rhyming Adventures in Nature (Eco-Justice Press, November 2023): www.sillylilysadventures.com

His poetry collection Across My Silence was published in 2007 by World Audience, Inc. His poems, microfictions, and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Earth Island Journal, MacQueen’s Quinterly, North American Review, and Rattle. His poetry has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and was recently anthologized in Earth Song: A Nature Poem Experience (T. S. Poetry Press, NY; 2022).

Cooper graduated with a BS in Biology from the University of Redlands, received a second bachelors degree (in English) from the University of Trondheim in Norway, and holds a teaching credential from Cal State Dominguez Hills. The former communication director at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, he worked for many years in the same capacity at John Tracy School for Deaf Children in Los Angeles.

Cooper lives with his wife, Kazuko, in Eugene, Oregon. They have a garden with English peas and roses, a cat named CouCou, and two sons, Jesse and Clay (who live in Los Angeles).

Greta Gonzalez

is an independent, largely self-taught artist who grew up in Corvallis, Oregon and recently began her first year at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. In 2022, she attended the selective Governor’s School for the Arts in Kentucky. In 2023, her art received an Honorable Mention in the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her introduction to the world of illustration began with a recent project for the Letitia Carson Foundation, illustrating a children’s book for a local elementary school. Now, she makes her professional debut as illustrator of Silly Lily’s Rhyming Adventures in Nature.