Call for poetry
By Victor Postnikov, Poetry Editor
Life far exceeds humans. For millennia, ecopoets have understood it as a far greater enterprise. In their poetry, we can hear the voices of those who came long before us, who live with us, and probably will live without us. Now, however, they face extinction and die in silence, deafened by the roar of civilization. The time has come to renew the old understanding that all life, including humanity, speaks a common language.
The mission of ecocentric poetry, or ecopoetry, is to help us empathize with non-human entities, be they a whale, a tree or a mountain. For we are all kin. Through metaphor and imagery, it speaks directly to our hearts and genes. We begin to realize that we have evolved together and share a common fate. They don't deserve to die from our greed and stupidity. Indeed, if they perish we too will die from a "great yearning of Spirit" (in Chief Seattle's words).
To a large extent, we are still in the infancy of poetically describing ourselves as fully natural beings. Philosophically and scientifically there are ecocentric discourses, but we haven't evolved poetically en masse, and our language is still quite poor in that respect. Or maybe we have forgotten the language that existed when, in the words of Tagore, "our forefathers lived their lives in inconceivably glorious universe departing with a sense of wonder in the eyes and devotion still intact – when every touch of universe having struck a chord in their heart-lute producing chanting melodies that were always anew"? In a similar manner, by breaking through old anthropocentric ideas and life-modes, ecopoetry discovers the richness and unfathomableness of a more-than-human world.
The change to an ecopoetic world is more complex than one might assume. It will require a change in the whole attitude to life, including language. (Whitman speaks to this.) A mindset that is bogged down in the anthropocentric limitations of present-day language is incapable of recognizing and transcending Otherness – whether of a creature or a 'thing' – and therefore can't respond appropriately. The whole system of discourse must be changed, the whole system of values. And this is what ecopoetry seeks and stands for.
Robinson Jeffers, an American ecopoet of great moral stature, gives one of the best definitions of ecopoetry: "It is based on a recognition of the astonishing beauty of things and their living wholeness, and on a rational acceptance of the fact that mankind is neither central nor important in the universe; our vices and blazing crimes are as insignificant as our happiness… Turn outward from each other, so far as need and kindness permit, to the vast life and inexhaustible beauty beyond humanity. This is not a slight matter, but an essential condition of freedom, and of moral and vital sanity."
Submissions
To get in touch with the Journal about submitting poetry, please use our contact form; the process will then be conducted via email. We accept submissions at any point in the year. Accepted poems will be run in the next available slot.
In preparing your submission, please bear in mind the following important points:
● We are seeking poetry with an ecocentric tone.
● Poems should be concise, and we will consider at most two at one time.
● Submissions should include a short biography.
● We are not in a position to provide feedback on poems that we opt not to run.
Topic areas for the Journal
● Biodiversity and bioabundance
● Protection and restoration of wilder habitats
● Animal welfare
● Energy and climate change
● Waste and toxics
● Human overpopulation and overconsumption
● Philosophical aspects of ecocentrism, Deep Ecology and deep green ethics
● Earth-centred law
● Ecological aesthetics and art
● The ecological potential of urban life
● Religious support for protecting the ecosphere
