Poet
Essayist
Eco-Mystic
About.
Poet, essayist, eco-mystic.
Ricky Ray is a poet, essayist and eco-mystic who lives with his wife and the ghost of his old brown dog in the old green hills of New England. He is the author of four books of poetry: The Soul We Share (2024), winner of the Aryamati Prize; Fealty (2019), a finalist for the Julie Suk Award; Quiet, Grit, Glory (2020); and The Sound of the Earth Singing to Herself (2020), a finalist for The Laurel Prize. He is also the author of a book of criticism: Brigit Pegeen Kelly: The Many-Mindedness of Spirit (2025). He was educated at Columbia University and the Bennington Writing Seminars, and his awards include a Ron McFarland Poetry Prize, a Whisper River Poetry Prize, a Liam Rector Fellowship, a Zoeglossia Fellowship and a Succorro Fellowship. He lectures on poetry, animism and integral ecology, and he serves on the advisory board of the Program for the Evolution of Spirituality at Harvard.
Work.
POEMS & INTERVIEWS.
Books.
“This 
book is the sermon we need after hours, when life’s sorrow overtakes our vision.”—Natalie Eilbert
“Poems of silent courage, softly spoken, with a generosity of spirit that opens out to everyone.” —Aaron Kent
“To read this book is to learn, just a little bit better, how to live.” —Devin Gael Kelly
The Sound of the Earth Singing to Herself (Fly on the Wall Press, 2020)