Ecopoetics and Nature Poetry Published in the 21st Century
The ecopoetic criticism I have read is mainly concerned with shifting the conversation people have about nature poetry so it accounts for the anthropocene. But I wonder what to do about poetry drawing on nature as an unconventional logic. Kind of like Louise Gluck’s The Wild Iris (Ecco, 1992). How the poet keeps viewing the house from the perspective of her garden, even taking on the voice of natural objects so she can make sense of the tragedy happening inside. Conceivably, Gluck’s book was before the term “anthropocene” was coined. But two books I’ve read recently were published in the 2010s. And I wonder how ecopoetics might fit into how I read them.
Is it possible for nature to occupy a poetic authority, or lend itself to a poet as an authoritative guide? In Ellen Bryant Voigt’s Headwaters (Norton, 2014) or Emily Pittinos’s The Last Unkillable Thing (University of Iowa Press, 2021), the poetry relies on nature as a reference point. Like there’s a logic to nature that helps Voigt sort through the mortal dimensions to a long marriage, or they help PIttinos acknowledge grief after losing her father. In the introduction to Angela Hume and Gillian Osborne’s book, Ecopoetics: Essays in the Field (University of Iowa Press, 2018), they describe an “ethical relationship” between people and nature, with a fairly open-ended application. It can hold true, for instance, whether the poet is aligning themselves more closely to nature, or the poet is offering some systemic critique of capitalism versus nature, or the poet is remarking on impending apocalypse as a result of human influence on nature for how that might relate to. Perhaps this is the conjunction between ecopoetics and these two contemoprary books by Pittinos and Voigt. It still feels like something’s missing. And I guess what my fundamental concern is that a poetry looking to nature as some spiritual guide is outdated, or it’s relying on a conventional poetic move. And while I can see how ecopoetics say it’s just offering better methods for reading certain kinds of poetry, I feel like these two books should be helped by an ecopoetic read, and I’m not sure yet how to do that.
Upcoming Releases
Two books I’m excited about for the future: Stella Corso’s Green Knife is coming out from Rescue Press some time this year. And, given the work I saw last year in an issue of FENCE, I think it’s going to be fun! I mean, truth be told, the FENCE work led me to her book, Tantrum (Rescue Press, 2017), which was very funny. So I think that will be exciting. And then my wife, Carrie Oeding, also has a new book coming out from Akron. I’ve been there while she’s been writing If I Could Give You a Line (University of Akron Press, 2023), and I can state with authority and unqualified affection for the poet, it’s a super book!!
A Really Wow Project
Ghost Proposal has three poets on their masthead: Nora Claire Miller, Kelly Clare, and Alyssa Moore. All three I’ve come across in my lit journal reading. All three with spectacular poems. I am just electric to see what happens in their hands. And though I should be ashamed to admit this, I refresh on the web site often, eager for what might appear!