Folks, I can't keep up. I gave myself some hard work to do here in April on top of some other hard work I am doing, and I'm tired in general, after many years of making all my work hard and serious and life-threatening. (You can ask if you want to know more, but I bet some of you recognize that circumstance.) Obligating a daily poem on a stressful topic while I try to get my head around the end of my traditional teaching career is unsustainable, it turns out. So I'm still reading and and still thinking, and I'll put up a poem when it feels easy and glowing instead of hard and obligatory.
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'mmaking "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.)
Every time I tap the Audible play button on ALL WE CAN SAVE my mind is blown by the ways in which Americans unwittingly participated in a process of "progress" that unwittingly brought the planet to this brink of catastrophe. I watch an episode of Mrs. Maisel
and I can barely enjoy it because there, on the screen, is an opulently
produced depiction of the opulence we were trained to crave,
unquestioned, by almost every influence of our history and culture here
in the U.S.
And
then I remember: "No, this is capitalism working EXACTLY the way it is
supposed to." It wasn't-- it isn't--exactly an accident, how we got here. As Regine Clement writes in "Catalytic Capital,"
"we are a society overly driven by capital and wealth; many of our values and mindsets are rooted in the desire for money. Social identity is in many ways calculated by wealth and channeled through...the unsustainable practices of extraction, production and consumption that have supported blind economic growth."
I have to believe--I know!--that we humans weren't always like that, but I guess intelligence = anxiety, and we intelligent, anxious humans are very creative storytellers. Our stories about survival became stories about competition and control, about winning at all costs. It can't go on like this, and we are figuring that out in a slow-motion hurry.
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'mmaking "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.)
Remember Molly, from April 7's "How We'll Get There"? This poem is the sequel, built from lines and ideas (noted in italics) from all the essays and poems in Part 2 of ALL WE CAN SAVE, entitled "Advocate." I'm trying to make friends with Polly C. (POLICY) myself.
<poem>
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'mmaking "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.)
I'm falling behind and catching up all at the same time suddenly, now that Spring Break has finally sprung--but isn't that also how we are managing the climate crisis? Daily falling behind when we think about our 2030 deadline, but also catching up to the truth and the urgency. Whether it's because we're paying attention to the IPCC or getting caught in a Georgia tornado, we just can't deny it any longer. And part of the catching up, says Mary Ann Hitt in "Beyond Coal," is knowing that "State and local decisions move the needle." Go Maryland! Go League of Conservation Voters!
<poem>
Is it poetry? Feels like it to me! Thanks to Alice and Kim and Kristyn, three more climate feminists who are getting it done, along with Shelly, Pamela, Nancy, Susan, Mary, Delores, Cheryl, Katie, Jill, Sarah, women members of the MD General Assembly who sponsored this bill.
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'mmaking "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.)
During March in PreK we learned about animals, and we practiced talking about ourselves as animals in nature. Returning to Amanda Sturgeon's Buildings Designed for Life:"Implicit in the choice we make about the built environment is a choice about ourselves: Are people separate from nature, or are we part of nature?" Makes a good striking line, don't you think? And it's 11 words, just like there are 11 letters in "Human Hubris," something we probably ought to educate out of our children.
Janice is our host at Salt City Verse this 2nd Friday of NPM. More important, honestly, is that today is the last. day. of. school. before. break! Whoa nelly, do school people need this! I'm glad that poetry will be a big part of my break.
EDIT: I've decided this should have a different title: "How We'll Get There." Also, if you're interested in the other ALL WE CAN SAVE poems I wrote this week, scroll down. I'm particularly partial to "Dam It."
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'm "Mak[ing] 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.)
My
challenge to myself is to center our fabulous, ferocious
human stories in the poems I write in response to ALL WE CAN SAVE--not
my standard approach to writing, which usually centers...well, me.
"To care about a
changing climate we don't have to be a tree hugger or an
environmentalist (though it certainly helps); as long as we are humans
alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about,
gives us all the reasons we need."
Katharine Hayhoe, "How to Talk About Climate Change,"
ALL WE CAN SAVE: TRUTH, COURAGE, AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Today I digress. After months on my nightstand, I finally cracked THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers, and I can't get past this opening without reading it aloud.
"Consider a tree, say, a good-sized tree in full leaf, worthy of sitting under on a summer afternoon. On a sunny day, when it's basking in light, our tree will transpire more than twenty-six gallons of water...When we enjoy the gentle cools of a forest, it is thanks not just to shade but also to the botanical work of all those trees transpiring."
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'm "Mak[ing] 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.)
My
challenge to myself is to center our fabulous, ferocious
human stories in the poems I write in response to ALL WE CAN SAVE--not
my standard approach to writing, which usually centers...well, me.
"To care about a
changing climate we don't have to be a tree hugger or an
environmentalist (though it certainly helps); as long as we are humans
alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about,
gives us all the reasons we need."
Katharine Hayhoe, "How to Talk About Climate Change,"
ALL WE CAN SAVE: TRUTH, COURAGE, AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS
This month I'm "Mak[ing] 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.)
My
challenge to myself is to center our fabulous, ferocious
human stories in the poems I write in response to ALL WE CAN SAVE--not
my standard approach to writing, which usually centers...well, me.
"To care about a
changing climate we don't have to be a tree hugger or an
environmentalist (though it certainly helps); as long as we are humans
alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about,
gives us all the reasons we need."
Katharine Hayhoe, "How to Talk About Climate Change,"
ALL WE CAN SAVE: TRUTH, COURAGE, AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS
In "Buildings Designed for Life," Amanda Sturgeon reminds us that it's only in the last hundred years that humans became primarily inside creatures who spend 90% of our time indoors. She envisions a built environment that remembers that buildings are "actually, rightfully, human habitats," and that for thousands of years we built our homes in, around and through nature, not removed from it. Philia, love--and bio, life--demand a new way of designing buildings that connect and respond to their environment. Augie's fairy house made me wish I were that small, that free.
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'm "Mak[ing] 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.)
My
challenge to myself is to center our fabulous, ferocious
human stories in the poems I write in response to ALL WE CAN SAVE--not
my standard approach to writing, which usually centers...well, me.
"It
isn't a matter of moving climate change further up our priority list.
The reason we care about [climate change] is because it affects everything that's
already at the top of our priority list: our health, our families, our
jobs and the economy, the well-being of our communities... To care about a
changing climate we don't have to be a tree hugger or an
environmentalist (though it certainly helps); as long as we are humans
alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about,
gives us all the reasons we need."
Katharine Hayhoe, "How to Talk About Climate Change,"
ALL WE CAN SAVE: TRUTH, COURAGE, AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS
What’s the story here? It’s a story of names–this is not even close to all of them–most of which were new to me, when I started to read ALL WE CAN SAVE. These have not been “the principal girls of the USA” for me; my culture (for all that I adore the B-52’s and their radical defiance of normative culture) has not sung their powers.
The women in this book refer to each other, to the influences of these mothers, aunties and sisters on the daughters, cousins, nieces of the climate rescue movement. As Adrienne Maree Brown says in her essay “What Is Emergent Strategy?” these women “interact and intersect and discover their purpose…and they serve it.” They are lung cells, tongue cells, breathing and speaking a new narrative of collaboration and change. I may come away from my reading some days downcast, but never alone.
<poem>
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'm "Mak[ing] 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.)
My
challenge to myself is to center our fabulous, ferocious
human stories in the poems I write in response to ALL WE CAN SAVE--not
my standard approach to writing, which usually centers...well, me.
So I'm working principally with narrative about others, bringing
what I'm learning about how we can save our foolish human
asses from ourselves by connecting to the people--including us--whose very existence is threatened, now and in the
near future, by unchecked climate chaos, and who are doing the work to reverse it.
"It
isn't a matter of moving climate change further up our priority list.
The reason we care about [climate change] is because it affects everything that's
already at the top of our priority list: our health, our families, our
jobs and the economy, the well-being of our communities... To care about a
changing climate we don't have to be a tree hugger or an
environmentalist (though it certainly helps); as long as we are humans
alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about,
gives us all the reasons we need."
Katharine Hayhoe, "How to Talk About Climate Change,"
ALL WE CAN SAVE: TRUTH, COURAGE, AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Today's
story is a true one from my literal front yard, and linked to my source book
only generally so far. But I think it also reflects our rushed and wasteful suburban culture, addressed in that Wakanda essay I referred to in yesterday's post.
<poem>
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My project for NPM 2022:
This month I'm "Mak[ing] 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.)
My challenge to myself is to center our fabulous, ferocious
human stories in the poems I write in response to ALL WE CAN SAVE--not my standard approach to writing, which usually centers...well, me.
So I'm working principally with narrative about others, bringing
what I'm learning about how we can save our foolish human
asses from ourselves by connecting to the people--including us--whose very existence is threatened, now and in the
near future, by unchecked climate chaos, and who are doing the work to reverse it.
I note that *ahem* today's poem is again mainly a poem about me, as well as my stranger-neighbors. Kind of a narrative, yes, but like I said--writing about other people is outside my hose-reel-house!
"It
isn't a matter of moving climate change further up our priority list.
The reason we care about [climate change] is because it affects everything that's
already at the top of our priority list: our health, our families, our
jobs and the economy, the well-being of our communities... To care about a
changing climate we don't have to be a tree hugger or an
environmentalist (though it certainly helps); as long as we are humans
alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about,
gives us all the reasons we need."
Katharine Hayhoe, "How to Talk About Climate Change,"
ALL WE CAN SAVE: TRUTH, COURAGE, AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Greetings and salutations! It is my distinct honor to be hosting Poetry Friday on this auspicious first Friday of National Poetry Month 2022, and I'm delighted to have you all here!
BIRTHDAY #1
There's quite a bit to accomplish today, first of which is to wish my little April Fool the happiest of birthdays! My first-born is 23 today and finally celebrating a day of majority cautiously but not under total lockdown, which is how she passed 21 and 22. For her pains she is receiving the first Harry Styles single since early 2020 from his new album HARRY'S HOUSE. Let's all share in her joy...
POEM #1
Second on the agenda is the April challenge for the critique group known as INKLINGS, consisting of Margaret Simon, Linda Mitchell, me, Molly Hogan, Mary Lee Hahn and Catherine Flynn. This month, thanks to Mary Lee we are writing with help from Ellen Bass and a heart-wrenching poem.
Use “The Thing Is” by Ellen Bass as a mentor text. Keep the title, but choose a theme/message either from your own life or from current events.
<poem forthcoming in POETRY BY CHANCE: An Anthology of Poems Powered by Metaphor Dice>
This is why we keep at it, right, folks? Because we cannot help ourselves, and because as bell hooks said, "The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is--it's to imagine what is possible."
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So now let's look at the poetry-art that's moving from possible into REAL over the next month. We have everything from new books to author chats, from poem-a-day projects to line-a-day collaborations!
Birthday #2
Today is also the book birthday of IMPERFECT II, an anthology of poems for middle-schoolers focused on PERSPECTIVE. This is a follow-up to IMPERFECT I, published in 2018 and also edited by Tabatha Yeatts, and it's already trending on major book sale sites! I'm thrilled to have two poems in this collection (alongside many Poetry Friday regulars), which offers poetry to answer this question:
When we've lost sight of the big picture, how can we help ourselves put things back in perspective?
Mine! Here you can find more information about my month of response to ALL WE CAN SAVE, the collection of essays and poems edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson. I'm reading it and listening to it and learning soooo much. I can't say I'll write a poem every day, but I'll try to write something every day, and I'm challenging myself to write outside my comfort zone.
NPM PROJECT #2
Joining me in responding to ALL WE CAN SAVE is Mary Lee Hahn, who WILL be writing a poem each day and depositing them here at her Poetrepository (one of my all time favorite coinages). She has some intriguing themes lined up. I'm enjoying the feeling that there could be some dialogue between our projects...
NPM Poetry Friday Tradition #1
Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup will once again provide us with the NPM Kidlitosphere Events Roundup. Her catalog of all the exciting bites on the National Poetry Month menu will make your mouth water, maybe even make you shout!
NPM Poetry Friday Tradition #2
It's the annual Progressive Poem, originated by Irene Latham (who kicks us off this year) and now hosted by Margaret Simon. Over 30 days, 30 poets will attempt to (and succeed; we always do) cobble together a collaborative poem, line by precarious, unpredictable line. Check out the team in the sidebar to the right!
NPM PROJECT #3
Linda Mitchell's APRIL poetry project at A Word Edgewise is to read one letter per day written by her grandmother
from decades before she was born, as an inspiration for a new poem. Can you IMAGINE how wonderful this will be?
NPM PROJECT #4
Michelle Barnes has resurfaced from a long pause (oh, we missed her!) for NPM and will be repeating last year's NPM project at Today's Little Ditty—Filling the Well. Playing with the stuff that inspires poetry, she'll be creating daily "inspirational musings" that pair quotations with art, photography, poems, music, dance... anything that strikes her fancy and gives the words new life.
NPM POETRY CHAT: SCOOP!
Laura Shovan's annual poetry chat at the Nerdy Book Club Facebook page is Sunday,
April 10 at 6 pm. This year's topic is "Staying Out Past Dark: Saying
Hard Things Through Poetry." It's a roundtable discussion with MG
author/poets Chris Baron, Rebecca Balcarcel, and Rajani LaRocca about
reading and writing poetry as a resource for kids during tough times.
Isn't it all heady and exciting!? And now, finally, YOU get your say!
I'm a tree hugger through and through. I could easily write 30 days of poems about how glorious is the grand and minute beauty of our planet's nature, and there would be plenty of interesting metaphor and emotional connection to the flora and the fauna that is endangered by climate change--and not a lot of narrative, and not a lot of people on the scene besides myself.
"It
isn't a matter of moving climate change further up our priority list.
The reason we care about [climate change] is because it affects everything that's
already at the top of our priority list: our health, our families, our
jobs and the economy, the well-being of our communities... To care about a
changing climate we don't have to be a tree hugger or an
environmentalist (though it certainly helps); as long as we are humans
alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about,
gives us all the reasons we need."
Katharine Hayhoe, "How to Talk About Climate Change,"
ALL WE CAN SAVE: TRUTH, COURAGE, AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS
But
as Favianna Rodriguez says in her essay "Harnessing Cultural Power," we need to
"Make human stories to move human beings. Human stories are more
powerful for inciting action than counting carbon or detailing melting
glaciers."
So my challenge to myself this April is to center our fabulous, ferocious
human stories in the poems I write in response to ALL WE CAN SAVE, the
collection of essays and poetry edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and
Katharine K. Wilkinson. I'll work principally with narrative, bringing
what I'm learning about how we can save our foolish human
asses from ourselves by connecting to the people--including us--whose very existence is threatened, now and in the
near future, by unchecked climate chaos.
.webp)
