What, you may ask, does an anthology of not-particularly-climate-related "poems of perspective" for middle-schoolers have to do with Truth, Courage and Connection and solving the climate crisis?
It's a great question, and yet, as climate communicators like Katharine Hayhoe, Emily N. Johnston and--well, I--have realized, every aspect of our lives and every identity we claim (and even those we're unaware of) is directly touched by the fact that we are hurtling by the day towards some truly unknowable consequences of our quotidian destruction of the planet. Everything really is connected by those interwoven lines of the interdependent web of all existence.
So, as we try to pick a path forward in our anxiety and grief, any little dose of perspective goes a long way. And way better to begin younger to grasp all that "keeping perspective" can do for us. Big thanks to Tabatha Yeatts, her team, and all the poets for bringing IMPERFECT II to us, which closes my April project--but not the brilliant ALL WE CAN SAVE that I still
haven't finished reading, never mind processing--here today.
As Tabatha writes in the Introduction, "All of us have to do something similar [show a realistic perspective] in our daily lives. Things may happen that we view out of proportion--we see them as being bigger, smaller, more permanent that they really are." The trouble, when it comes to climate disaster, is that if you accept the science,* it's hard to pin down what a "realistic" perspective might mean, and our climate chaos future really is looking bigger and more permanent than many of us can imagine. What can we, parents and grandparents of the kids IMPERFECT II is made for, take from this slim but "high-nutrition" volume?
The Perfect Book for Now
Is it stubborn to insist
that IMPERFECT II
comes along at the perfect time?
Or is it always/ every day/
each moment/ this week/
tomorrow/ oops just now/
the perfect time
to practice/remember/
realize/ learn that
there is no such thing
as perfect?
If these pants fit me "perfectly,"
that won’t be true for you.
If my project lacked perfection/
even completion, does it
mean I failed? Why, no.
And if my poem strikes you as
perfect, it won’t be so for everyone–
only for the you who came to it
precisely when and how you
needed it.
draft ©HM 2022
Here's some of what I read in ALL WE CAN SAVE this week and the perspective I needed--and found--in IMPERFECT II.Ash Sanders: "How do we confront the reality of climate change and convince others to
do the same? The environmentalist Alan AtKisson calls this predicament
Cassandra’s Dilemma...AtKisson connects the myth to climate action: the more a person knows
about environmental destruction, the more they will try to warn others,
and the more others will, in fear and defensiveness, resist them." --Under the Weather, ALL WE CAN SAVE
Robert Schechter:
"If you really knew me,
If you could see right through me,
If you could glimpse the true me,
If you could rightly view me,
I wonder if you'd like me more, or less?"
"Your Guess" (excerpt), IMPERFECT II
Amy Westerfeldt: "Exxon CEO Lee Raymond said in a 1996 speech..."It's a long and dangerous leap to conclude that we should cut fossil fuel use...there's simply no reason to take drastic action now." The m***erf***er. These speeches and memos infuriate me." --"Mothering in an Age of Extinction," ALL WE CAN SAVE
Lisa Varchol Perron:
Some words, like stones, are heavy--
they knock me to my knees.
While other float like feathers
and scatter in the breeze....
But I can start refusing
to carry stony things.
I'll gather all my feathers
and stitch them into WINGS.
"Stones and Feathers" (excerpt), IMPERFECT II
Ash Sanders: "Ultimately, [Chris] settled on one word to describe both others and himself. He called it ignore-ance,
or “returning from a state of consciousness to a willed state of not
knowing.” That’s where he was now, he said, and where so many people
insist on being. He was surviving, but he didn’t admire himself. “You do
it by pretending,” he said, as if teaching me how. “You pretend that
this life is OK, that college football is fun, that driving is normal.
You pretend, to justify living a lie.”--Under the Weather, ALL WE CAN SAVE
Linda Mitchell:
I pledge allegiance to my hoody,
and the safety it
provides
me,
a life jacket in
troubled
seas,
and cover for me...
"My Hoody" (excerpt, IMPERFECT II)
Emily N. Johnston: "We can feel fear and grief and anger, in other words — we can even feel
avoidant sometimes — and still attend to the world’s very real and
immediate needs, as long as we don’t let our feelings be an excuse for
abandoning our responsibilities. And in truth, serving the world’s needs
is the only thing that I have seen consistently lighten that
fear and grief and anger in others, and the only thing that has done so
consistently in my own life." --Loving a Vanishing World, ALL WE CAN
SAVE
Mary Lee Hahn:
"My eyes are not the best in the animal kingdom,
but I can see both sides of an argument,
giving me the power of perspective,
I can see into your pain,
giving me the power of empathy,
and I can see what might be,
giving me the power of imagination.
"Point of View" (excerpt), IMPERFECT II
Emily N. Johnston: "Everybody has different skills, and different temperaments...We can best use our own
abilities within the landscape of our feelings, in other words, by
valuing those of others. We have one volunteer who spends a day every
week doing our books, another who does all the tricky work on our
database, another who writes all our thank-you notes for us. We even
have a retired massage therapist who offers us free massages. All of the work is critical in this moment, and we must do
it with humility; learning as we go; taking on both the deeply
satisfying and the unpleasant or routine tasks. We don’t have to believe
they’re adequate — we only have to understand that not doing them would mean we’d decided not to care for this world..."-- Loving a Vanishing World, ALL WE CAN
SAVE
The Bigger Picture
i am one particle among
millions and
billions and
trillions of us
each of us our own particular
grains and
shapes and
three-dimensional
crystals and
infinitely numerous
colors and
formed through unimaginable
eons and
from uncountable
eruptions and
erosions and
somehow we are all called
sand
Again, thanks to Tabatha Yeatts for including my work along with all the many talented poets included in this anthology. Order your copy here!
*Pet Peeve: it's not a question of "belief," which does not depend on data;
it's a question of accepting the science, which IS the data. We should stop talking about whether people "believe" in climate warming. Do they accept the scientific data or not?--that's the question.
🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎
My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'm making "human stories to move human beings. Human stories are more
powerful for inciting action than counting carbon or detailing melting
glaciers." (Favianna Rodriguez, from her essay "Harnessing Cultural Power," in ALL WE CAN SAVE.)
2 Gratitude for those who take the time to fix things
