25 August VIRUS 2020

Poetry in a Time of Crisis. NY Review of Books

How Bob Brown taught Australians to talk about, and care for, the ‘wilderness’. The Conversation

What this critically endangered bird tells us about Australia’s failing environment protection laws. ABC News

Study revealing New Guinea’s plant life ‘first step’ toward protection. https://news.mongabay.com/

The world is experiencing a sixth global mass extinction event, and a new paper advocates that botanical gardens are uniquely positioned to preserve the world’s plant diversity. https://nph.onlinelibrary.

I am striding around the lookout, on the hunt
for photographs, the heaving mass below
is tearing itself into strips that spurt.

Again and again I am drawn to differences
between the bodies of the ocean and river
stretching, straining, swelling, pushed and pulled,
the gravity of the situation, moon and mountain,
compared to water captured, cornered,
the blue sail of sea is failing.
I hear a voice, Ash from the gallery is working
with kids making art about bushfire recovery,
leaving them I realise I am garrulous.

I am too early, park down on the shore, eat
my sandwich, the wind is cold, I’m wrapped
two teens race past, wringing wet from
a swim in the sea that would be invisible
if not for the lights along the breakwater
scribbling onto the waves, the stars
still a gimmer of what is to come.

I wil be sleeping wired, if only
they made a film of my dreams.