CHEESE AFTER FUKUSHIMA: Poems for a Changing Planet

It became increasingly apparent to me that climate change was real, and a danger to our species as well as to many others on this planet.

     Between 2009 and 2015, I wrote a series of "OP-ED" pieces that were a poetic commentary on some of what humans were doing to the planet -- and to themselves. 

      The original title for this selection of 61 of the poems was "OP-Ed: Earth.Poems on Climate Change."But the Fukushima disasteris a sad emblem of human overreach in an unpredictable world, and the current title a more vivid reminder of our situation now.  

 

BLURBS:


---"In Cheese After Fukushima,” Slatkin shows an impressive breadth of vision, and engages with the world in a most urgent fashion."

                             Charles Holdefer, English Professor, University Poitiers, France.



---"Minimalist, musical and boldly imaginative, yet the poems are rooted in actual happening.  A text for truth-teaching about our climate conundrum."

                            Barbara Sarah, psychologist, Kingston, Ulster County, NY.



---“Earth-pulse and beauty drive these poems, but there is also rage against all that conspires to wring dry and kill. The volume is intense, wide-ranging, passionate.

                        Alice Elman, professor Humanities, Suffolk Community College, Long Island. 

 

---- Marcia Slatkin's poetry expresses profound empathy for all Earth’s progeny. Hers is a powerful voice of sanity, morality, loss… and hope.

                          Judith Ahrens, PhD, Integrated Systems Specialist, Peace Core volunteer

 

---- Slatkin’s work expands our perceptions into realms many seem unwilling to see or to protest. The volume addresses our possible disdain for, and

ignorance about, our actual situation.

                           Douglas Kramer, Human Rights Lawyer, Environmentalist, Dutchess Co.

 

Contents?

          

     Many of the poems are monologues in the voice of elements and beings on earth and in the  universe: CO2, A Melting Glacier, Jelly Fish;

the Ocean; Oxygen; The Red Planet, the Rainforest, an Albatross, a RHino, Fire, Earth, our Solar System; The Sun -- and yes, even God!

Other poems are written in the voice of people confronting / living with destructive changes. And many are written in my own voice --

sad and angry, but grateful for the beauty that is here still.  -- 

 

The collection will be published by sfapress ( Stephen F Austin State University Press), Texas, in the fall of 2017.

     There is an old folk song popular in the 70s.

     "If I had a hammer ...  I'd hammer out danger; I'd hammer out a warning.

      I'd hammer out the love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land." 

     This book is my hammer. 

Contact: Marcia Slatkin

marcia.slatkin9@gmail.com

www.marciaslatkin.com

917 597 4253.