Code Red for Humanity
Image credit: Alexander Mils
Writer in Residence Jacqui Stearn on the contradiction of driving to the lake in search of ecopoetic inspiration and facing in to the climate and ecological emergencies
The focus for my first month of residency in April was the past. The focus for this second residency month, August, is the present. And what a frightening present it is as fires rage around the Mediterranean nations and in the Western United States. At least there seems to be a universal recognition that we are living through climate change in real time with the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) screaming ‘code red for humanity’.
This frightening truth of human impact on the planet, the Anthropocene, is what I took to with me on my most recent visit to Lake 32.
I also carried within me the last line of my most recent sonnet – there is a growing sequence a Sonnet Relay for Lake 32 if you like. ‘Commit to leave no trace, make harm reversed’ is the line that I swam with me, and what surfaced was the dilemma that taking care of my own health by swimming, necessitates a drive and the release of yet more carbon into the atmosphere. I have been living with this dilemma since the visit and it has led me to research my own carbon footprint and how/whether I can offset the carbon that I am responsible for emitting. Of course, the dilemma and resolution - if indeed one is possible - has entered the crafting of the next sonnet in the sequence.
I reflect that without the commitment to creating a sonnet relay which requires a repeat of the last line of the previous sonnet as the first of the next, I wouldn’t be attending to the climate and ecological emergencies in this particular way; choosing a distinct poetic form is taking me to a new, challenging edge. My hope is that the poem which emerged inspires readers and listeners to find the courage to face into the emergencies in their lives and to urge our governments on the IPCC to commit and act with collective urgency at COP 26 in November.
Jacqui Stearn is the Dialect x Waterland writer in residence throughout April, August and December 2021.
Follow her on Twitter @StearnJacqui
