Poems of Land and Sea
How do we express anguish at climate calamity and ongoing extinction? How do we find hope? One way is through our voices: poets writing ecopoetry are sharing what they see and feel deep down. Ecopoetry is a literary genre concerned with environmental issues, the poet's response to the impact of human activity on the planet. It witnesses environmental degradation and climate change due to human activity and dares hope we can work clear of it. Ecopoetry celebrates the beauty of the natural world, re-imagines our place in it, and advocates for ecological awareness and sustainability.
The Ecopoets Of Sea Crow Press
Sea Crow Press is inspired by nature. It took its name from a flock of crows that plie the Cape Cod shoreline and continues to honor this inspiration by publishing an assortment of ecopoets. Through their work, each of these poets amplify the voice of nature. Their books offer the reader a journey through the natural world to the self and back. Prepare to be intrigued, prepare to travel, and prepare to encounter nature on its terms while re-examining your place within it. Most importantly, prepare to hope.
Amelia Diaz Ettinger
These Hollowed Bones
This collection ties together the themes of loss, marriage, and ecology, topics that are at once personal and universal. The voices contained within these poems speak of the isolation felt by both avian and human due to migration and loss of habitat, loss of home. Nature and bird lovers will find solace and self-recognition within these pages.
'It is Ettinger's encounters with birds that reflect some of our most vulnerable human qualities.'
—TAK Erzinger, poet, winner of the 2021 Whirling Prize, University of Indianapolis
'A collection the reader can come home to again and again, in any season.'
—Brittney Corrigan, author of Solastalgia
TAK Erzinger
Tourist
With the help of winged messengers and flora and fauna that creeps, winds and demands we engage, Erzinger presents otherness and connectedness. She leads us through the flux of the human experience with powerful layers of imagery from the natural world.
Revelations are made in the middle of the night, during a pandemic, in the heart of the forest, at the seaside and in food, snapshots of past and present. Through the wonder and surprise of nature, the search for identity is explored, surrendering to what cannot be changed and confronting the mercurial temperament of relationships and how they are perceived, one poem at a time.
'Erzinger masterfully intertwines the beauty and mystery of nature with the joy and suffering of life. With vivid imagery, she holds up a mirror to the moments that defined her and reflects them back like literary snapshots of landscapes and still life paintings. Erzinger reminds us that the past is never far behind, the present is fickle and fleeting, and the future holds the promise of redemption.'
-Cindy Tovar, founder & editor-in-chief of Hispanecdotes
Marc Woodward
Shaking the Persimmon Tree
With ‘The Bird Scarer’ and ‘The Green Man in Rocombe’ we are in the realm again of farming and country lore, the latter a sort of tongue-in-cheek suggestion of the otherworldly, the former a depiction of the creating of a scarecrow which combines something almost epic and symbolic with down-to -to earth yet beautifully painted images: ‘Then a banger went off, rooks clattered up, / and he left her to flutter in the maize.’ There are 48 poems in this collection, mainly short pieces, which take in a range of subjects, from climate change and ‘the lockdown,’ to a concern with illness (Parkinson’s disease in particular), the death of parents, the landscape of the South West of England and travels in Italy.
'In these searching, songful poems, Marc Woodward reflects on the ricketiness of life;
of the body, and of the certainty of earthworms. His imagery elevates the natural world to its rightful place. Birds, sky and trees glimmer like new-found things while his pragmatism puts on its boots, picks up its keys and looks you straight in the eye.'
-Helen Ivory, 'The Anatomical Venus' (Bloodaxe), editor of Ink, Sweat & Tears.
Mary Petiet
Moon Tide Cape Pod Poems
Moon Tide animates the landscape of Cape Cod, brings the ocean to life, and ponders the fragility of the creatures that live there. The poems slide through time and space, from the glacier to an imagined future, all while encompassing the constant change wrought by the water on this slender, narrow land sticking bravely out to sea.
'Let Moon Tide take you to weathered gray houses and frogs in the marsh and the constant presence of the sea like its own person.' -Antonia Malchick, Author of A Walking Life
An Ecopoem:
Beach Debris
from Moon Tide Cape Cod Poems
by Mary Petiet
Beer can, bottle top, ballpoint pen
cigarettes, candy-wrapper, chip bag.
Beach debris deposited by a
moon tide
on a strong northeast wind.
We flip trash from the wrack line
into a found two-gallon drum
with handle, marked Kikkoman.
Flip flop, boat shoe, sneaker
fishing line, rusted hooks,
shellfish license, clothes,
gear from the oyster grants
Don’t those oyster guys say
they’re cleaning the harbor?
What is NOT on the beach?
My ten year old asks
as we gather debris
while the Black Dog runs the flats.
Plastic, plywood, PVC
ribbons, rope, balloons
zip lock, single-use plastic bags.
Someday we’ll find something really great,
mom, says the boy.
The dog flits glossy black
through the late October light,
I see the boy glowing blond
and think there it is.
Read Ecopoetry!
Ecopoetry transports readers to the realms of land and sea, evoking powerful feelings of connection to the natural world with the profound emotions of shared human experience. We published these titles at Sea Crow Press to give nature a voice, and to give that voice a platform because a world we are connected to is a world we'll strive to preserve. We hope
you cherish these books as much as we do.
