July 2007
What story are we caught in? What cultural materials can you gather to discuss this story?
What is the place of women in our epic times? If poetry is your vehicle, what experience can be made, and where is the place for people to go? What is your super hero?
April 16, 2024
Those questions were asked of me by Alice Notely, in 2007, as we discussed writing epics for our times. My answer is an epic of how humans can rapidly rewild the world. The forest is the past, present and future. There is the hidden knowledge of the healing effects of a forest, especially the ancient form, and more people need to breathe in forest air.
Poets expose secrets. The energy that coalesces, collides and aggregates the experience of a forest with its soft interrelationships and connections, rhythmic bounces and emitted in the scent phytoncides, are free to experience.
Shrines of humus. Forest acts. A stabilizing place. I offer spheres of ideal harmony.
The pressing story that I would like to tell is how we have the tools to rapidly rewild here and now. A gift for future generations.
What cultural gift can my community (American & Poet) offer the world? Cure of climate crisis with action immediately comes to mind of course.
I believe it is the renewal of a deep connection to the earth which is part of the story of loss. We can all be a part of this story and join the mission on how to gain back loss.
My super hero is an ancient forest, figuratively and literally. Can we renew the age of Forest Shrines again, as was common in ancient cultures? When a forest was cleared, a small portion of that forest was protected. I’d like to dot the country with Shrines erected as mini forests.
“If by 2054 we increase the amount of carbon in land by 9%, we will have brought back to earth all of the carbon dioxide emitted by coal, gas, and oil combustion, deforestation and extractive agriculture since 1800.” (Page xii in the book Mini-forest revolution by Hannah Lewis) which sheds light on how the Miyawaki method- self sufficient old growth forestry which takes decades versus centuries.
This is not just planting trees, it is actually recreating an ancient forest and there is a way to grow these in a tenth of the time. Perhaps we can include markers for traveling poets to find by leaving fine old lanterns inscribed at iron gate entrances of these erected shrines.
Forests provide healing power. Phytoncides have antibacterial and antifungal qualities which help plants and trees fight disease. When people breathe in these chemicals, our bodies respond by increasing the number and activity of a type of white blood cell called natural killer cells or NK. These cells kill tumor- and virus-infected cells in our bodies.
Tree groves protect us and strengthen our sense of what we love about being alive. That is a sacrament, an affirmation of life.
By creating mini forests, I may not be able to resuscitate ancient earth, but just maybe I can help her speak again to future generations.
Attracting sparrows moving between the earth and sky helping humans inhabit our own bodies listening to their songs, compelling ourselves into the present is also a cure for human consciousness. To prevent our attention from scattering we will use our hands to dig into the earth to find new life. Our attention span is not extinct. Yet.
An epic of Forest shrine seeds scattered into the humus is a story of Mini forests found in dense packed woods. Five long centuries of these mini forests built on postage sized lots in the middle of the city. Tennis court sized dense forests built wherever we can.
These forests are our cultural legacy, a continuum of archaic realms, moving forward into new territory of arbor, epic which needs to replace the tyrants so we can see the hidden deer paths.
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