About

What is this Embodied Climate Justice Fitness (ECJF) website about? It’s a work in progress, a portfolio of sorts where I share about my journey as a climate-aware facilitator and creative climate communicator. I’m a fitness/movement arts facilitator, poetry group facilitator, and climate activist who is engaged in applying my learning and training in climate psychology and “internal activism”. This About page features poems, selected resources I’ve created to accompany my activations and selected climate communication graphics. You can find additional resources and news about my work on my Home page, Blog page, and Walking in “Indigenous Sovereignty” as a Settler-Ally page. Learn more about me on my Contact page and my Instagram account @annanieminenecjf I would love to hear from you with any comments or questions.

POEMS

Featured below is my tribute poem “Tam’s Tower”. It’s a tribute to the curious, plant-possessed tower in Ron Watson Park in Scarborough-Agincourt. The park is named for former City of Scarborough councillor Ron Watson (going back to pre-amalgamation with Toronto). The park was formerly named Tam O’Shanter Park, and the golf course to the north still bears that proper name. In the past, this park was the Charles Watson farm (no relation to Ron Watson). The poem ends with a land acknowledgement with the reference to “Tkaronto”. I debuted this poem during the Scarborough Poetry Walk in Ron Watson Park that I led as part of the Jane’s Walk Toronto Festival on Sat May 3, 2025. I also shared this poem during the Scarborough Poetry Club‘s 10th anniversary celebration at Agincourt Library on Sat Oct 4, 2025. Earlier that week on Wed Oct 1, I shared this poem at the open mic during “We Create Our Futures” at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto.

Featured below is my tribute poem “Waiting Willow”. You can read more about this poem in this blog post.

Featured below is the collective poem “Weather Watching” by members of the Scarborough Poetry Club in Ontario, Canada. You can read more about this poem in this blog post.

Featured below is the collective poem “Clarion Call for a Warming World” by members of the Scarborough Poetry Club in Ontario, Canada.

In response to the climate crisis, we, Anna Nieminen and Jeevan Bhagwat, co-facilitators of the Scarborough Poetry Club, invited members of the Club to participate in the creation of a collective poem that deals with the theme of a warming world. We were inspired by “Season 2, Episode 6: On Nature, Poetry and Creativity with Kim Stafford” of the Climate Change and Happiness podcast.

We 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:

• Your environmental identity: How did you interact with nature as a child? How do you remain curious about nature as an adult?
• Dimensions of the ecological crisis, such as habitat loss, species loss, pollution, etc.
• The healing properties of the natural world

The creation of a collective poem requires that each individual contributor relinquishes some control and trusts the process. The poem emerged from the individual lines being brought together by Anna and Jeevan to create a narrative from the responses to themes that we suggested as prompts. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback about this collective poem. Thank you to Club member Sheila White for reading our collective poem at the Sunday, February 26, 2023 service at Don Heights Unitarian Congregation.

Addressing the climate crisis 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 in our warming world.

Anna Nieminen and Jeevan Bhagwat, Co-facilitators, Scarborough Poetry Club

Introducing Embodied Climate Justice Fitness (ECJF) Poet in Residence Jeevan Bhagwat! This first poem by Jeevan titled “Early Morning Poem” is as much about my experience of engaging with creative climate communication through fitness/movement as it is about Jeevan’s experience of poetry making. Metaphorically, this poem captures the compelling nature of the global call for climate justice and the inter-generational hope for fashioning a more sustainable climate future for all. – Anna Nieminen

This second poem by Jeevan Bhagwat titled “The Linden Tree” is about his experience of relating to a particular tree over the years as if it were a family member or kin. Metaphorically, this poem captures the idea of what I call “anthropo-kinship” and inspires us to reflect on our own relationships with familiar trees around our homes and in our communities. This reflection on the importance of trees in our lives may lead us to a desire to protect trees and the ecosystems on which we all depend. View and try “The Linden Tree” movement art activation, making any modifications for yourself. – Anna Nieminen

This third poem by Jeevan Bhagwat titled “The Sandhill Burial Grounds (Yonge & Bloor) ” brings to light a little know fact about local First Nations history below this busy Toronto intersection where “these arteries/ still bleed ghosts.” It was included among the poems read during the “Living in Indigenous Sovereignty” Poetry Walk lead by me, Anna Nieminen, during the Jane’s Walk Festival Toronto 2022 (and again in 2023). A self-guided edition of the poetry walk from 2022 can be accessed on my ECJF Blog page. – Anna Nieminen

This fourth poem by Jeevan Bhagwat titled “Circular City” was inspired by an article by architect William McDonough referenced in the text and a graphic in my ECJF Blog post “Growing the Circular Cities Movement Through Cultivating Creative Climate Communication“. This poem and the blog post celebrate Canada’s inaugural Circular Economy Month this October 2022. – Anna Nieminen

This fifth poem by Jeevan Bhagwat titled “Fast Forward” is a cautionary poem that warns us of a dystopian future “if we sacrifice tomorrow, today” by failing to take bold and urgent action on the planetary health crisis. To compliment the reference to “future shock” in this poem, I created the background by altering an image of the view from our balcony to make it appear as if our neighbourood was being consumed in a wildfire. It created a disturbing picture as a backdrop to unsettling words. “Fast Forward” was published earlier this year in ISSUE # 9 MAR 2022 of dyst Literary Journal. Learn more about climate shock in my ECJF Blog post on “Sitting and Moving With Climate Emotions”. – Anna Nieminen

Selected Resources

What is Embodied Climate Justice Fitness (ECJF)? With this poster I’m introducing some definitions, including what I call “anthropo-kinship“. To learn more contact me at climatejusticefitness@gmail.com. Follow me on Instagram @annanieminenecjf

Introducing notes for my first Activation Practice Demo, a 6min, mindful, climate-aware fitness practice with the theme “Keeping It Public for the People and Planet!”. This theme is inspired by the Council of Canadians‘ “We Decide: Green New Deal Communities Organizing Guide“. I invite you to follow along with the video on the Activations page (making any modifications you need to for yourself) and please feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback. You can email me at climatejusticefitness@gmail.com. Follow me on Instagram @annanieminenecjf

Introducing notes for my first Movement Arts Practice Piece, a 6min, mindful, climate-aware practice with the theme “Relating to and Protecting Trees”. This theme is inspired by the poem “The Linden Tree” by Jeevan Bhagwat, ECJF’s Poet in Residence. I invite you to follow along with the video on the Activations page (making any modifications you need to for yourself) and please feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback. You can email me at climatejusticefitness@gmail.com. Follow me on Instagram @annanieminenecjf

Here’s a poster about Embodied Climate Justice Fitness (ECJF) at our workplaces. You can email me at climatejusticefitness@gmail.com to learn more. Follow me on Instagram @annanieminenecjf

Selected Climate Communication Graphics