Got Gulf Oil? (a poetry project)

Archival photo of bird with oil: (cc) Paul (talk) at Flckr/Wikimedia

Got Gulf Oil? Call for Work…

Please consider sending something along in solidarity – once we have enough work posted, we’ll start sharing with media outlets – thanks.

Poets for Living Waters is a poetry action in response to the Gulf Oil Disaster of April 20, 2010, one of the most profound man-made ecological catastrophes in history. Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky describes the popularity of poetry after 9/11 as a turn away from the disaster’s overwhelming enormity to a more manageable individual scale. As we confront the magnitude of this recent tragedy, such a return may well aid us.

The first law of ecology states that everything is connected to everything else.  An appreciation of this systemic connectivity suggests a wide range of poetry will offer a meaningful response to the current crisis, including work that harkens back to Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing regional effects.

This online periodical is the first in a planned series of actions. Further actions will include a print anthology and a public reading in Washington DC.

If you would like to submit work for consideration, please send 1-3 poems, a short bio, and credits for any previously published submissions to:

poetsforlivingwaters at yahoo.com

Editors: Amy King & Heidi Lynn Staples

One Response

  1. The Laughing Gull

    Don’t separate the bottle from the cork
    if you’re not certain you can put it back.
    What it comes down to, see, essentially,
    is this: the wings frail rigging from an old
    shipwreck, the body sculpted to bats’ wings
    and shrouded by black sludge that cauls the beach,
    prints shadows in the shifting sand beneath
    our feet. Not laughing any more, these scant
    remains, set like the skeletal outline
    of dinosaur we’ve chiselled from hard rock,
    dead stuff deposited in salt lagoons
    before the world we know was shaped and chased.
    Our lust for oil part justifies their greed,
    so we must bear some portion of the blame.

    Peter Branson

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