 From its idealistic beginnings to what is become one of the most celebrated global events of the year, Earth Day is a rare phenomenon of our modern age; a single day where the importance of empire and capital are secondary to the health and preservation of the planet, a day where 193 countries from around the world are united by this most universal bond of existence. Since 1970, we celebrate April 22nd as a day of environmental awareness, advocacy, and appreciation. Recent years have also seen an increased emphasis on political policy reform in the face of impending climate disaster. The 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, for example, saw signatories from around the world coming together in their pledge to ensure a safe and sustainable planet for all. The effects of climate change, like those of a global pandemic, are and will continue to be felt across every corner of the planet. We can be heartened by the universal support for vaccination research, dissemination, and safe social policy that has overtaken society over these past many months, if only to show that we are capable of so much more, that in the face of financial collapse we left no stone unturned in our fight to overcome the coronavirus. This too shall pass, but the work of defending our planet is ever-demanding and will require an equally impassioned effort. As part of our continued Earth Day celebrations, Peace Partners will showcase environmental poetry throughout the month of April. From Nicaragua to Palestine, from Indonesia to the United States, we have carefully selected work that speaks to our universality and the global necessity of climate action. We begin with famed poet and environmentalist W.S. Merwin and his timely appeal, “One Story”: One Story
Always somewhere in the story which up until now we thought was ours whoever it was that we were being then had to wander out into the green towering forest reaching to the end of the world and beyond older than anything whoever we were being could remember and find there that it was no different from the story anywhere in the forest and never be able to tell as long as the story was there whether the fiery voices now far ahead now under foot the eyes staring from their instant that held the story as one breath the shadows offering their spread flowers and the chill that leapt from its own turn through the hair of the nape like a light through a forest knew the untold story all along and were waiting at the right place as the moment arrived for whoever it was to be led at last by the wiles of ignorance through the forest and come before them face to face for the first time recognizing them with no names and again surviving seizing something alive to take home out of the story but what came out of the forest was all part of the story whatever died on the way or was named by no longer recognizable even what vanished out of the story finally day after day was becoming the story so that when there is no more story that will be our story when there is no forest that will be our forest
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 In March 1999, UNESCO formally recognised the imperative need for poetry in the modern age. Now for more than two decade, March 21st has come to represent our global literary community as few other events ever could, and to promote the preservation of regional poetic cultures around the world. It is a day to recognise the long, storied legacy of poetry through every stage of human history; from landscapes of Ancient Greece to the wartime writings of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva and the forlorn beauty of Turkish exile Nazim Hikmet. Poets have been the very eyes and ears of time, speaking truth and beauty for the heart of unknown generations to come. Poetry, through its many oral and written traditions, offers a human chronicle of our shared existence. Where modern accounts of history will recall the political winners and casualties of conflict, it is the poet's rendering that will speak to the truly human experience of war, peace, and perseverance. In honour of International Poetry Day, and as part of our ongoing effort to elevate new and/or foreign voices with English readers, we are delighted to share a poem from revered Pakistani Urdu poet Kishwar Naheed: The Grass Is Like Me Naheed's life and poetry have been deeply influenced by the intensely gendered politics of the Indian-Pakistani region. Fortunately, her work and advocacy can be felt around the globe, as many of her most famous writings have been translated from original Urdu. Naheed's passion for human rights and gender equality is inspired and infectious (curious readers might also consider the equally anthemic, "We Sinful Women").
Her work speaks to our shared, persistent struggle for individual freedom and social equity, particularly as relates to gender imbalance and the indispensable role of women in society; now and forever. Naheed's work exemplifies the poet's role in society as a purveyor of strength, hard truth, and all the hope of humanity to find beauty in even the most unexpected places. |
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