Naropa Summer Writing Program, Boulder, CO
Naropa Summer Writing Program, Boulder, CO
WEEK 2: July 8 – July 14, 2013
Hellfire, Drought, and Brimstone: A New Eco-Poetics
Alarm! Human driven modification to the planet’s ecosystems contributes to rising atmosphere greenhouse gas levels causing extreme fluctuations in weather, altered species distribution, and increase in extinction rates. Whole cultures and languages are going out of existence as well, affected by basic human struggle for survival under increasing duress. As we experience, our planet is undergoing unprecedented instances of climate change, with water clearly emerging as the inestimable element in the balance of our “oikos” (root of the word “ecology” meaning house). Fire, floods, and drought have been causing havoc, as well as strange denial in the will or the polis around issues of gun control in a culture run wild with violence. The connections between man-made plunder, from frakking to war, have been established in terms of how we eschew guardianship of our planet and our own communities. Can poets and artists envision an alternative to this dystopia? How do we address violence, amnesia, death- wish, and the extreme- almost biblical conditions- of an altered world? How are we adapting?