Writing the green back into the Earth: Poetry as ecological activism

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Literature, Department of

Document Type

Book Chapter

Source Title

Selected Studies in Environment and Health

First Page

288

Last Page

307

Publication Date

2011

Place of Publication

Quezon City

Publisher

Central Book Supply, Inc.

Abstract

The worsening environmental ills have attracted the attention of nearly all disciplinal fields. At the forefront of this is science which has formulated definite and measurable steps towards solving the problems. What has become the focus of the field is ecology-the study of relations and interactions between organisms and their environment. The core of the inquiry defines how the balance can be brought back into the said relationship.

However, the humanities, particularly, poetry, proposes a different look into the problem. It argues that what must propel the exploration into today's environmental situation should be a deeper study of our values and attitudes not only toward the physical environmental but, more importantly, toward the way we have dealt with our own selves and others. Poetry, in this regard, can be a powerful force for the articulation of human sentiments, values, and aspirations that often escape the so-called "objective" language of science. Poetic language can introduce to the student a different realm of witnessing and experiencing nature in all its mysterious manifestations. Not only does poetry borrow images from nature but it defines as well the complex alliances between the natural and human realms.

This paper, hence, looks into the varied traditions of poetry's advocacy for the protection of the environment long before the term "ecological poetry" has come into vogue. More specifically, it cites Filipino poets whose ecological concerns have inspired them into looking into the country's myths and folktales-stories that were once a witness to the rich and pristine state of our own natural resources. The author also looks into her poetics and how it has progressed to a more committed concern of the environment, in all of it metaphorical resonances.

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Disciplines

Environmental Studies | Poetry

Keywords

Poetry; Environmental protection—Poetry

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