“scary & sad” sez the sea-ice researcher –
meaning, i take it, scary for us, sad for the polar bears & seals & all. but here’s a prize for the last poem on the face of the earth. entry fee 35 usd – it’s yr last chance, after all. in other news: the new climate migrants may be people from the arctic: you can’t be sure you won’t fall through the ice anymore if you walk on it; houses shift off moorings as permafrost melts – you can’t store food in your cellar nowadays; & the unthinkable: no “christmas in ice” ice sculpture park in north pole, alaska – not enough ice; “is it caused by climate change? no," sez the arctic climate scientist; “is this another one of a series of warm winters in alaska that are part of our changing climate? you bet." . . . ok . . . so . . . changes in weather cannot be attributed to climate change, even though the weather is part of the climate, which is changing. . . . so, . . . explain that again? in the meantime, here is a roster of some things that cannot definitively be said to have climate change as their proximate cause: 80 wildfires now in new south wales, 50 uncontained; thunderstorms brought rain (good) but also lightening (bad), igniting more land; worst air pollution ever (not to mention greenhouse offgassing, an added extra) d.r. congo floods “claim dozens of lives”; 180k people in need of humanitarian aid; half of bedroughted zimbabweans dependent on aid; recent heavy rains welcome in e. africa, but not the 60 deaths in kenya from mudslides . . . elsewhere, in our not-exactly-caused-by- climate-change roundup: & it’s official: highest acqua alta month ever in venice: 4.26’ in st. mark’s square; water up to mid-thigh in the streets; 80% of city underwater; the p.m. sez “it hurts to see the city so damaged, its artistic heritage so compromised...” (sad and scary); this after a record-hot summer in italy; & a big chunk of savona-turin motor- way collapses under landslides; gov. of liguria tells everyone to stay inside; now the storm is playing hell w/greece; & as 4 more people in s.w. france die of flooding, the govt. issues guidelines to keep people safe: bug-out bags, shut off electric & gas, move to an upper storey with the stuff you will need, don’t drive into under- ground tunnels, don’t drink the water, check house for foundation damage, put pet bodies in plastic bags, contact yr insurance agent quickly; sound advice. for the poem is melting; the poetry book is drowning or being drowned; the poem burned up with all the other garbage; if you have poetry in your household, be ready on short notice to take it to a place where it will be OK, its timelessness not subject to time & tide, its spiritual loftiness only safe on the upper floors
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |