Can Poetry Save the Earth?
“If poems touch our full humanness, can they quicken awareness and bolster respect for this ravaged resilient earth we live on?” writes Stanford professor of English John Felstiner in Can Poetry Save the Earth?
As we hover on the environmental point of no return, Felstiner argues that poetry may have a singular capacity to return our attention to our environment before it’s too late.
When challenged: Pick just one poem that could save the world, if everyone were to read it. Felstiner chose “The Well Rising”
The Well Rising
The well rising without sound,
the spring on a hillside,
the plowshare brimming through the deep ground
everywhere in the field —
The sharp swallows in their swerve
flaring and hesitating
hunting for the final curve
coming closer and closer —
The swallow heart from wing beat to wing beat
counseling decision, decision:
thunderous examples. I place my feet
with care in such a world.
on 22 Apr 2009 at 10:32 am 1.Sonya Rose said …
I’m so very drawn to the nature world; and the universal world; and the spiritual world. If we see ourselves as naturally poems, as a collaborative poem; then, I believe we can do some poetic justice all together. Start thinking creatively in these 3 realms, strengthen our minds, to undo some of the harm which has been done to our Mother Earth already…