Between climate change and the biodiversity crisis, much news about our environment is negative. How do we as poets respond to it? Whether to alert and alarm, or to acknowledge and lament, our response can be a balm for others grappling with our changing environment. When writing about recently extinct species, our poems can be eulogies that celebrate something that no longer lives on Earth. Using handouts, we’ll examine a couple of ecopoems in order to highlight different approaches to responding to loss in nature and find techniques we can use. Then, with prompts, we’ll write some of our own responses. Sharing some of this work will allow us to process our feelings as a group. By challenging ourselves to engage important environmental problems, you’ll come away both with new material and with renewed connection to the natural world.
Adjunct lecturer in the sciences. Talk to me about science poetry and nature poetry. Also talk to me about my new book, Brief Eulogies for Lost Animals (Pen and Anvil, Boston).
