toot tooting and the #sEEleychallenge

Greetings, Poetry Lovers! It's the 3rd Friday of the month and time for a climate-focused post; luckily there's a gigantic piece of good news to celebrate. As I hope you know, on Monday, a Montana District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs in Held v Montana, ruling that the State of Montana’s failure to consider greenhouse gas emissions from energy and mining projects violates the state constitution because it does not protect Montanans’ right to a clean and healthful environment and the state’s natural resources from unreasonable depletion.

This is the first case challenging state and national climate and energy policies to make it to trial in the U.S., and is now the first in which the plaintiffs, 16 Montana youth now ages 5 to 22, are VICTORIOUS.  If you've heard of the #SealeyChallenge in which we all read poetry all August, you'll see why I'm hoping a SEELEY Challenge 😁 will take off , and that other groups in other states will see success in other lawsuits that challenge policies that damage the climate futures of our young people. For more information visit the Flathead Beacon's ongoing coverage site, and especially take time to read once again about the young woman climate activist, Rikki Held, who as the only plaintiff of age at the time the case was filed, gives her name to this landmark decision. (Isn't it right that our Earth should be held with care?  And also that "Held" is the word for HERO in German?) Then go give some money to the Beacon, to Our Children’s Trust, or to another journalism or legal organization that supports climate rescue.

Poetry itself can be leveraged in the effort, of course, and I'm happy to say that I'm doing my part!  Although I'm not in the class of poets famous enough to be featured on this poster, I do have a poem in the forthcoming anthology DEAR HUMAN AT THE EDGE OF TIME: Poems on Climate Change in the US, edited by Luisa Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto and Dr. Jeremy Hoffman.  I'm certainly enjoying the company I'm in! Join us for the virtual launch next week!

click to buy from an indie bookstore

And while I'm tooting, I'm very late to announce with pride that I have two poems in the anthology of Metaphor Dice poems, POETRY BY CHANCE, which launched in July!  You heard about it from plenty of other Poetry Friday friends, and I just let the date go by unmarked.  My poems are titled "Loss," and "You have to".

click to buy from an indie bookstore

Our host today is dear Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone, where she offers up a "haphazard combination of perennials, wildflowers, and weeds." Delightful!

yes, the round-up is here!...and announcing THE NATURE OF OUR TIMES anthology

Apologies for the late start this morning! I discovered on Wednesday that I had reports to complete on my grant-funded projects for FY25, which I knew but hadn't quite realized there would be FIVE of.  And then there is the distraction of finding, down the street a piece, an enormous fig tree with a paper plate sign hanging off a lower branch: "FREE FIGS"!

I don't know about you, but the scent of the fig trees at this time of year follows me around, calling to my mouth...maybe there's something to the idea that deep in my northern German heritage was a swarthy Mediterranean soul...

So last night I was busy picking figs and forgot that I switched hostess duties with Margaret Simon. So sorry if you've been impatiently waiting to unleash your post last night or this morning!

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It's the 3rd Friday, so traditionally Climate Friday here at my juicy figgy little universe, and I have some nice news to share.  The same folks who collected and published DEAR HUMAN ON THE EDGE OF  TIME in September 2023 are putting out second ecopoetry anthology called THE NATURE OF OUR TIMES, and I'm so pleased that they've selected one of the poems I submitted for the online Gallery to be in the print book! It's billed thus:

Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders

A companion to the First National Nature Assessment (NNA1), Forthcoming, Fall 2025 from Paloma Press, in collaboration with Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and Poets for Science

The first time I saw the call for poems back in January, however, it seemed to be focused on our little patches of backyard nature--so those were the kind of poems I submitted.  You'll find "Ordinary Grass," "invasive: a kudzudoku" and "Undone" in the Gallery, which is the one that will  be included in the book. 

There are a number of other poets from the DMV (DC/MD/VA) included, a few of whom I know, so I'm hoping we'll be able to organize some public readings. And looking at the Bios galley I was asked to review, I also find some Big Names: Diane Ackerman, Camille Dungy, Jane Hirshfield, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ray McNeice and Arthur Sze, plus many others you might know.  And of course, the editors: Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and David Hassler.  I'll let you know how you can order it when the time comes. For now, enjoy "invasive: a kudzudoku":

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incomplete syntax, incomplete challenge

Greetings and rabbit, rabbit to you all. This illustration is by my friend Robin Galbraith, who has been spending an hour protesting Supreme Court ethics violations for *56* days!  See her activism on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robin.galbraith.3

Here in the mid-Atlantic the day is dawning sunny and pleasantly cool (with 98* predicted for next week, so let's not break out our sweaters). As it's the first Friday of the month, we kick off with the Inklings Challenge, set by Margaret Simon:

Jack Bedell is a former Louisiana Poet Laureate. His poem “Ghost Forest” uses the poetic element of enjambment. Write a poem on any topic using enjambment. http://www.versedaily.org/2023/ghostforest.shtml
Here is the Poetry Foundations definition: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/enjambment

I applied my Definito preparation approach and read about the etymology of the word jamb.  Come on through, readers; the doorway's open

Maybe every poem (not just every poem by me) turns out to be about the body somehow, the source of all our metaphors.  You could test that idea that by reading DEAR HUMAN AT THE EDGE OF TIME, the climate anthology published by Paloma Press, edited by three distinguished folks and including 69 distinguished poets and me. The virtual book launch was last night and it was most enjoyable!  Pre/order your copy at this link--it releases at some point this month, and my paperback copy is very satisfying to have in hand.  The variety of the poems is wonderful, and you can watch the recorded launch reading here.  That challenge is pretty complete, although I hope to participate in another of the readings that are forthcoming.

My Sealey Challenge, however, is another matter.  I cannot seem to read a whole collection of adult poems at a sitting; it's all too intense somehow.  So I went ahead with my attempt to catch up my inbox full of a Poem-A-Day, and was what you might call moderately successful.  Unlike some of you all, it turns out that a deadline by itself (as opposed to a deadline-or-else) is not enough to marshal my self-discipline; plus, I've had to give into a routine of very much less routine and structure than I'm used to.  It's been a year and I'm still not that comfortable with it!

But I am going to order 4 books like I planned:

An older one, Lace & Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens by Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil, two of my favorite poets;

One by Camonghne Felix, who was a political speechwriter before being a poet-- Build Yourself a Boat;

Swoon by DJ Savarese, and 

WELCOME TO THE WONDER HOUSE, poems by Rebecca Kai Dotlich & Georgia Heard.

You can see the rest of the Inklings' responses

to the enjambment

challenge 

by clicking these 

links:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Mary Lee @A(nother) Year of Reading
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche

Happy New (School) Year and honoring the Labor of all this weekend!

50 ways to cure the climate

Greetings, Poetry People!  As I write, snow is falling steadily for the second time this week here in the MD suburbs of DC.  Our 4-day school week dwindled to just one yesterday, and while it's nice to finally have snow days in January, right where they belong, the bigger climate picture is always on my mind.

So I have two bon mots for you today (and I'm not using that expression in the Francophone way meaning "clever remarks"; I'm using it the way my dad used to, meaning "little treats.")  The first is a poem from DEAR HUMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME: POEMS ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE UNITED STATES (Paloma Press 2023).  I'm still getting to know all the poems and poets included in this anthology, where my poem "Prompt: Write a Climate Crisis Poem" appears.  This one I'm sharing is not by me!

Sonnet for the Seasons: New England | Kate Cell

 

And what if we could stop it, after all,

   could stop the change too swift for us to grasp,

   listening instead to the maple's sweet dusk

drip in the metal bucket?  The whipp-poor-will

may never summer here again.  Recall

   to us Lock's Pond, ice thick enough to rasp

  through to snatch the drowsy trout, the chilled clasp

of hands raw in glazed wool gloves.  How small,

how petty our accounting of the world

  in all its flames.  We have no means to measure

    the beauties we have lost, burnt, broken--

our love shies away from our grief, we lie curled

  in shame.  How should we learn now what we treasure?

    Wait.  Only wait, for the windflower to open.

So who is this decidedly not petty Kate Cell, the poet? "Kate Cell is the Senior Climate Campaign Manager for the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her role, she manages the UCS Climate Campaign, leading a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, policy analysts, legislative affairs staff, and outreach and communication experts working to achieve policies that can reduce global warming emissions and increase resilience to climate change impacts. ... She holds a BA in English and psychology from Macalester College and studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop."

I don't know about you, but all my hope is in the people, as Adrienne Rich wrote, "those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world."  So my second treat for you on this third Friday of the month, Climate Friday here at mjlu, is a link and an excerpt from The Grist 50, annual list of climate and justice leaders to watch, published by Grist Magazine. Just look at who they are and what they're doing!!!  We are not alone.  Here's just one group of folks working hard on solutions in the Business & Technology arena.

THE GRIST 50

Evette Ellis

She’s building the workforce to support EV infrastructure

Long Beach, CA

Cody Finke

Laying a new foundation for cleaner construction

Oakland, CA

Aaron Fitzgerald

This founder wants to turn everyday products into permanent carbon sinks

Houston, TX

Rob Lawson-Shanks

He’s tackling e-waste with circular design — and robots

Chantilly, VA

Sandeep Nijhawan

This tech entrepreneur’s next challenge: Green steel

Boulder, CO

Sanjana Paul

Her hackathons fuel climate innovation

Cambridge, MA

Joanne Rodriguez

She’s harnessing fungi to tackle construction waste

Bolingbrook, IL

Uyen Tran

Countering fast fashion with lessons from nature

New York, NY

Franziska Trautmann

From a recycling problem, she’s creating a coastal-restoration solution

New Orleans, LA

Seriously, friends, go meet all 50 of these "Fixers." You will get inspired. Is "enspaired" a word, like the opposite of "despaired"?  That's what I mean.

I'm pretty sure we will all find enspairation too at the round-up today, served up today in a steaming cup by Robyn Hood Black. See you there!

yet here we are

 

  

Tight on time today, but here's a word from our sponsor Planet Earth, in the voice of her proxy, poet Caitlin Gildrien.  This poem comes from the anthology you've seen me mention before--DEAR HUMAN AT THE EDGE OF TIME (Paloma Press, 2023).

I like the breadth of the perspective in this poem, its surprising density given that breadth, its uncertain, intense desire to carry on.

Thanks to Mardiret I mean Margaret of Reflections on the Teche, who is hosting us following the festivities of Mardi Gras!