Poetry and Environmentalism

If the relation between poetry and nature has always been a very intimate one from Ovid onwards, why is it then that the most urgent threat hanging over us remains a marginal theme among poets? We spoke to New Zealand's former Poet Laureate, Brian Turner, about poetry and ecology. We looked at the Greek etymology of the word economy, discussed why environmentalism is an ethical and not a moral stance, talked about the role poetry can play in changing consciousness and enumerated a brief historiography of social inclusion through capitalism. Brian also read exclusively for us four of his poems - Pessoa, Blackbird, Loughborough Road and Pig - from his recently published anthology Selected Poems. With Andre López Turner in the small town of Oturehua and Juan Toledo in London.Listen to Brian Turner reading some other of his poems on Poetry Archive and read The Mass by Peruvian word-wizzard Cesar Vallejo