by daithí
On a day that surpassed mid-70s with sidewalks scattered with desiccated leaves, an interesting meeting of the minds took place. Vermont was experiencing drought while “Environmental Poetry in the Time of Climate Crisis” took place on Champlain College.
Sundog Poetry was bringing together an unlikely mix–that of poets and scientists.
Alison Hawthorne Deming, a poet and essayist, spoke about how the monarch butterfly caused her to realize how important observation was to her craft. Jody Gladding mimicked birdsongs from a soundtrack that only an Audubon member might memorize and also spoke about the barkbeetle leaving messages in the bark. John Elder, who taught both English and Environmental Studies, demonstrated how Emily Dickinson and Gary Snyder were fore-runners to the current eco-poetry movement.
A fourth member of the presenters had distinctly different credentials: Nalini M. Nadkarni had been a researcher studying rainforest canopies. Her observations led her to believe that we, as humans, walk the ridge between despair and hope. At such desperate times, new alliances need to be formed. What if poets, musicians, sculptors, and naturalists held a canopy party? It might resemble the Sufi tale about the blind men and the elephant. Or it might create a strong and unified front against the forces that destroy our very future existence. That made sense to me.
Chard deNiord, a former Vermont Poet Laureate, introduced the fifth presenter, poet Jane Hirshfield. She writes about the need for activism, the resilience found within nature and our personal complicity in global warming. After reading some well-known and recent poems, Jane reminded the audience that “we work to save what we love.”
*”Sweeney was the King of Dál nAraide. The Dál nAraide was the name given to the Cruthin People who came originally from Scotland. Their territory of the same name was situated east of Lough Neagh in Counties Antrim and Down in Northern Ireland. They were the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and were reputed to have settled here before the Fir Bolg. They practised divination by means of the flight and cries of birds. The Battle of Mag Rath (Moira) in A.D. 637 was thought to have marked the end of their independence.”
from Ask About Ireland webpage. For additional reading: see Seamus Heaney’s Sweeney Astray.