eco language reader

by Brenda Iijima

How can poetry engage with a global ecosystem under duress? How do poetic languages, forms, structures, syntaxes, and grammars contend or comply with the forces of environmental disaster? Can innovating languages forward the cause of living sustainably in a world of radical interconnectedness? In what ways do vectors of geography, race, gender, class, and culture intersect with the development of individual or collective ecopoetic projects? Contributors Karen Leona Anderson, Jack Collom, Tina Darragh, Marcella Durand, Laura Elrick, Brenda Iijima, Peter Larkin, Jill Magi, Tracie Morris, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, Julie Patton, Jed Rasula, Evelyn Reilly, Leslie Scalapino, James Sherry, Jonathan Skinner, and Tyrone Williams. Co-published with Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Criticism, Essays, Anthologies

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Rebecca Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, I've highlighted about half the book, so I guess I'm finding it stimulating, thought-provoking and very useful in thinking about my fall class and stuff in general. It's a slow-go because of all of this, though.

Later: Can't find my copy of the book or I'd give some clue about what I enjoyed most about it. You'll have to read it and come up with your own opinions, I guess.

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

from The Ecology of Poetry by Marcella Durand
‘Ecological poetry is much like ecological living—it recycles materials, functions with an intense awareness of space, seeks an equality of value between all living and unliving things, explores multiple perspectives as an attempt to subvert the dominant paradigm of mono-perception, consumption and hierarchy, and utilizes powers of concentration to increase lucidity and attain a more transparent, less anthropocentric mode of existence.’ (117)

from Eco-Noise and the Flux of Lux by Evelyn Reilly
‘I’ve also been noting directions that I don’t think are particularly helpful, including writing that simply expands the arena of natural description to include landfills and polluted streams, or that devises yet more astute metaphors based on carbon cycles and energy flows. While these tactics might have their uses, I think that ecopoetics must be a matter of finding formal strategies that effect a larger paradigm shift and that actually participate in the task of abolishing the aesthetic use of nature as mirror for human narcissism.’ (261)

[mmmm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I'll return and read this again in 20 years.
Certainly some interesting ideas, and a few that will stick with me.
As a whole, I found this a bit disjointed. I understand allowing different authors to do their thing, but some of it was deliberately nonsensical and some was abstrusely academic. I'd rather be able to choose one of those, and found myself skimming the wordier stuff.

[Ellie Botoman · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5