How do we face a blank page with the knowledge that the earth’s natural abundance is being destroyed for short-term profit, and how do we live with the information that exquisitely varied plants and animals might become extinct in our lifetimes? We protest, we lament; we work and study in the field; and we use our imaginations with the help of our chosen discipline – art, science, natural philosophy or poetry – to envision a better outcome.
This talk explores how poetry provides formal tools, ritual settings, collaboration, and community to help us navigate our way out of this crisis.
Jane Robinson is a poet, and biologist from Dublin, http://www.jane-robinson.com/. A former Strokestown International Poetry Prize winner, her first collection, Journey to the Sleeping Whale, (Salmon, 2018) won the Shine-Strong Award. Recent essays are in, Skylight, 47-14 (2021) and in, Irish Women Poets Rediscovered, (M. Johnston & C. Linnie, Eds. CUP, forthcoming). A collaboration with Irish composer, Malachy Robinson, on a poem sequence 'For the Atoll', premieres at the Killaloe Music Festival, Limerick, Ireland in June 2021.
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