Eco-poetry: Nature Through the Lens of Motherhood
We live in fraught ecological times, as unchecked-climate change threatens our planet. And though we—humankind—may be the invasive species, “we are,” as the poet Ashia Ajani writes, “nature, entangled in her movements.”
The poems in September’s MER online folio explore this entanglement of natural and emotional landscapes. Written through the lens of motherhood, the poems delve into personal narratives that grow beyond the boundaries of the body, firmly rooting themselves in their ecospheres. These are poems that not only confront the political ramifications of neglecting our world, but poems that weave a story with nature.
Some poems place us in a long line of ecological history. In “Badlands,” Jodi Boulton writes,
Alligator fossils
Amethyst haze sunsets,
and my childrens’
silhouettes
against the striations
and water marks—
their architecture
of ancient epochs.
Maria Picone’s poem, “The world is my mother’s gift,” offers a vision going forward, an inevitable lineage, “to mother mother I gift you world this world this world. . . .”
These are poems of urgency and honesty that dig into the flesh of this world. We hope you will reflect deeply on these poems that entangle themselves in the mirror-worlds of motherhood and ecology.
Jennifer Martelli and Cindy Veach
Featured Poets:
Jodi Boulton
Sandra Crouch
Lorraine Currelley
Jules Jacob
Koss
Maria Picone
Catherine Esposito Prescott
Anna Laura Reeve
Hannah Baker Saltmarsh