April is both Earth Month and National Poetry Month and is a busy time for many of us activists and creatives. The number of opportunities for engagement can become overwhelming, so I hope that you’ve been responding in ways that support your personal capacity for curiosity, creativity, and resilience. Besides strengthening our relationships and connection to our communities, we may also need to disengage and rest, perhaps now that the month is coming to an end and we journey into the month of May.
As a climate activist and a poetry enthusiast, as well as someone working at the intersection of both, I’ve been especially busy these days. I’ve also needed to take time this month for solitary meditation, reflection and reading, and for leisurely walks to visit a beloved willow tree in a nearby park.
With this Earth Month 2024 blog post, I’m keeping it simple by featuring two poems, one written by me and one written by a collective of poetry enthusiasts including me.
Poem 1: “Waiting Willow” by Anna Nieminen
This short autobiographical poem is my tribute to a special willow tree relative. The first two lines started as a one line contribution to the Scarborough Poetry Club‘s new collective poem called “Weather Watching” (see Poem 2). Lines 3-7 were written during a poetry workshop for the Climate Psychology Alliance North America‘s Expressive Arts Committee members and CPA-NA members at large. The last line was added during an edit since it felt like something was missing that I didn’t have time to express during the workshop, being this feeling of relating to the willow tree as a relative.
I read “Waiting Willow” during the Scarborough Poetry Club’s “Voices in Verse VI: Celebrating National Poetry Month 2024 with the theme WEATHER” event at Agincourt Library on Saturday April 20. I also facilitated this event, which featured readings by Jeevan Bhagwat and members of the Club. Jeevan is Poet in Residence for my ECJF project website and you can read some of his poems on the About page.
The graphic for “Waiting Willow” features photos of the tree and my hand touching its trunk at a gap in the bark that is shaped like a hand. For accessibility, I’m including the text of the full poem after the graphic.
Waiting Willow
Weird weather
making me moody.
Waiting willow
guides my gait.
Bark like a balm,
I touch my teacher.
Grief to gratitude
relation renewed.
Poem “Waiting Willow” by Anna Nieminen
© Anna Nieminen, 2024
Poem 2: “Weather Watching” collective poem by members of the Scarborough Poetry Club, Ontario, Canada
Poet Jeevan Bhagwat and I invited Scarborough Poetry Club members to reply to a call for submissions email with one original line of poetry in English that responds to one of the following prompts:
“1. The National Poetry Month (NPM) 2024 theme is WEATHER. You can read more about NPM 2024 on the League of Canadian Poets’ website at poets.ca.
The LCP writes, “This April 2024, we invite poets and poetry lovers to delve into the experiences, feelings, and inspiration that weather offers. Whether the serenity of a snowfall, exhilaration of a summer downpour, or the familiar whispers of a gentle breeze, the League of Canadian Poets invites you to explore WEATHER this National Poetry Month – April 2024.”
2. Some of our members may want to interpret this WEATHER theme from a climate crisis perspective since this is a theme we’ve worked with on a number of occasions at our Club, including during September’s “Poetry for a Warming World” event at Agincourt Library and our first collective poem called “Clarion Call for a Warming World”. You can read that poem here.
What weird weather have you noticed? Have you experienced climate grief about warmer winters with less snow and/or ice? Does the increasing frequency of summer storms make you nervous? How did you feel about the wildfire smoke that came into Toronto/Tkaronto and other cities with the winds this past summer? These are just some prompts by way of questions for you to reflect on. Of course, you’re free to take inspiration from the LCP’s prompts above and interpret the theme in your own way.”
The poem emerged from the individual lines being brought together by Jeevan and me to create a narrative from the responses. Some responses were edited for length. For accessibility, I’m including the text of the full poem after the graphic.
Weather Watching
Weird weather, making me moody.
It seems most people care more about the weather than the climate.
I watch my fields with hope beneath this dome of friendly air and the blackness of outer space.
Sunshine energizes my being and inspires me whenever I bask in the embrace of its warm rays.
A matt of finely beaten silver hushes becomes a sheet of rain.
And snow will come, and the innocent world be white.
The snow is warmer than zombified souls, she brings solace and love to me.
Heat and cold perform a dance of romance as bushfires rage while snow melts and violent storms roar.
Mother Earth is shedding her crystal cloak of ice… the planet is changing.
“Weather Watching” collective poem by members of The Scarborough Poetry Club
© The Scarborough Poetry Club, 2024
Addressing the climate crisis and protecting our planet Earth takes both individual actions and collective actions, which is why we wanted to cultivate some thinking and responding creatively as a collective of writers. Of course, beyond creative communication about the ecological and climate crises, there are the concrete actions that we all need to be taking in the personal, public and political spheres to effect positive change as we face weird weather in our warming world.
Embodied Climate Justice Fitness 