Ecopoetry is any poetry with a strong

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

emphasis or message. Many poets and poems in the past have expressed ecological concerns, but only recently has there been an established term to describe them; there is now, in English-speaking poetry, a recognisable sub

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

of poetry, termed ''Ecopoetry'', which can, on occasions, form a major strand of a writer's career, preoccupy entire poetry collections, or be the theme of international competitions. Prior to the term, work embodying what we would now instantly recognise as 'an ecological message' had no agreed banner to fly under, but nevertheless the increasing presence of work having an 'ecopoetic' stance exerted an influence on, and gave impetus to, the subsequent subgenre. Examples of influential texts include: the book ''Ecopoemas'' of

Nicanor Parra Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval (5 September 1914 – 23 January 2018) was a Chilean physicist and poet. He has been considered one of the most influential Spanish-language Chilean poets of the 20th century. Parra described himself as an " an ...

(1982); ''The White Poem'' by Jay Ramsay & Carole Bruce (Rivelin Grapheme Press, 1988); ''Bosco'' (Hearing Eye, 1999; 2001); and (more recently) ''Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl'' (Enitharmon Press, 2004). Other early publications include ''The Green Book of Poetry'' by

Ivo Mosley Ivo Adam Rex Mosley (14 April 1951 – 31 January 2024) was a British writer, poet and potter. His career encompassed ceramics, poetry, social commentary, opera and musical theatre. In latter years his focus was works of non-fiction relating to p ...

(1995, Frontier Publishing and Harper San Francisco, 1996 as ''Earth Poems ''). This included over three hundred poems from around the world, many translated by Mosley, and helped to define and establish the genre. One of a number of seminal texts helping to introduce the term into wider, critical use was ''Ecopoetry: a Critical Introduction'' edited by J. Scott Bryson (2002). Another example of the burgeoning use of the term at the millennial turn was the journal ''

Ecopoetics Ecopoetry is any poetry with a strong ecological or Natural environment, environmental emphasis or message. Many poets and poems in the past have expressed ecological concerns, but only recently has there been an established term to describe them; ...

'', which broadened the term from poetry into ''

poiesis In continental philosophy and semiotics, ''poiesis'' (; from ) is the process of emergence of something that did not previously exist. Forms of poiesis—including autopoiesis, the process of sustenance through the emergence of sustaining parts� ...

'' interpreted as making or writing more generally. One of the fundamental premises of ''Ecopoetics'' is derived from an ideological perspective that desires the conception of difference or alterity as non-oppositional; we are challenged to view things in relation. This recognises that the writing is itself an extension of an ecosystem, and that the characteristics of the text exist in profound relationship to one another. Since then, a spate of poetry anthologies and books has appeared, either employing the word explicitly or using the idea as a guiding principle. Recent instances include

Alice Oswald Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second ...

's ''The Thunder Mutters'' (2005),

Forrest Gander Forrest Gander (born January 21, 1956) is an American poet, translator, essayist, and novelist. The A.K. Seaver Professor Emeritus of Literary Arts & Comparative Literature at Brown University, Gander won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2019 for ...

& John Kinsella's ''Redstart: an Ecological Poetics'', and ''Earth Shattering: Ecopoems'', edited by

Neil Astley Neil Astley, Hon. FRSL (born 12 May 1953) is an English publisher, editor and writer. He is best known as the founder of the poetry publishing house Bloodaxe Books. Life and work Astley was born in Portchester, Hampshire, and grew up in nearby ...

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

(2007) and Clare Shaw's ''Flood'' (2018). One of the chief characteristics of Ecopoetry, as defined by James Engelhardt, is that it is connected to the world in a way that implies responsibility: as with other models that explore and assume engagement (

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, etc.), Ecopoetry is "surrounded by questions of ethics". Meanwhile, as a means of describing poetry or poetic projects that embrace the ecological imperative for personal sensitivity and social change, Ecopoetry has been cited by such writers as

John Burnside John Burnside (19 March 1955 – 29 May 2024) was a Scottish writer. He was one of four poets (with Ted Hughes, Sean O'Brien and Jason Allen-Paisant) to have won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for a single book – in th ...

and

Mario Petrucci Mario Petrucci (born 1958) is a British-Italian poet, literary translator, educator and broadcaster. He was born in Lambeth, London and trained as a physicist at Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge, later completing a PhD in vacuum crys ...

. Indeed, Ecopoetry is now more than a subgenre of poetry that simply takes ecology or the environment as its subject; rather, it has begun to be viewed by some critics and artists as part of a much wider, burgeoning artistic movement that, collectively, serves to challenge and influence the non-sustainable habits of culture, politics, economics, and art itself.

References

Bibliography

'Planting Roots: A Survey of Introductions to Ecopoetry and Ecocriticism'
by Caitlin Maling
''Cordite Poetry Review''

'Ecopoems'
term used in title of ''Earth Shattering: Ecopoems'' (ed. Neil Astley; Bloodaxe 2007) .
Redstart: An Ecological Poetics
by

and John Kinsella (University of Iowa Press, 2012) . * ''Ecopoetry: a Critical Introduction'' (ed. J. Scott Bryson; University of Utah Press 2002) .
The Future of the Past: Ecopoetics
by

at The Free Library * ''The White Poem'' by Jay Ramsay and Carole Bruce (Rivelin Grapheme Press, 1988) .
Bosco
by Mario Petrucci (Hearing Eye, 1999; 2001) .
Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl
(Enitharmon Press, 2004) . * ''The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems About the Planet'' (ed., Alice Oswald; Faber & Faber, 2005) . *

'' by Massimo D'Arcangelo,

Anne Elvey Anne Frances Elvey is an Australian academic, editor, researcher and poet. Education Elvey has completed at Bachelor of Science with Honours, a Graduate Diploma in Education (Secondary), a Bachelor of Theology, a Master of Theology and a ...

and Helen Moore (La Vita Felice, 2017) .
The Language Habitat: an Ecopoetry Manifesto
by James Engelhardt (2007).
Manifesto of Italian ECOPOETRY (2005)
by M. Ivana Trevisani Bac

* Literary journal
''Ecopoetics''
* The Poetry Society'
''Ecopoetry Study Packs''
* Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - 1996 - A Bantam Spectra Book - . * ''Ecopoetry'' by V.I.Postnikov (The Trumpeter, 2001, 17,1) http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca.

by R.S Mallari. * The Ecopoetry Anthology, coedited by

Ann Fisher-Wirth Ann Fisher-Wirth (born 25 January 1947) is an American poet and scholar, based at the University of Mississippi. She has won several teaching awards, including Liberal Arts Outstanding Teacher of the Year (2006), Humanities Teacher of the Year (2 ...

and

Laura-Gray Street Laura-Gray Street is an American poet. Life She graduated from Hollins University. She holds an M.A. from University of Virginia, and an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College. She was assistant professor at Randolph College, and serves on the board ...

, Trinity University Press (2013). * ''Anthroposphere (The Oxford Climate Review)'

issue 8 (2022); article: ''Art and Climate Change: Separate Bubbles or Mutual Membrane?''; archived here
, archive-date=12 July 2023
{{environmental humanities Ecopoetry, British poetry British literary movements British Poetry Revival Genres of poetry Environmental humanities Environmental literature