Ecopoetry as Mind into Matter: Some Educational Possibilities

Authors

Abstract

In part, this work draws on the revisioning of curriculum in the context of the climate crisis that occupies Chapter 8 of the author’s book on Sense of Place, Identity, and the Revisioning of Curriculum (2023: Springer Nature). The focus here is the “genre” of ecopoetry, described by Walton (2018) as “contributing to the task of repairing divisions between humanity and the ecosystems that constitute and support us” (p. 393). As a response to the Anthropocene, ecopoetry is potentially polemical and activist. However, as it is argued, it can also operate in more covert means by modelling ways in which ecocritical ontological and epistemological stances, congruent with traditional indigenous wisdoms, can be languaged into the textures of poems in ways that suggest a relationship with the non-human world that is both non- hierarchical and non-anthropocentric. This monograph will begin by revisiting and critiquing the poetics of romanticism and its contribution to anthropocentrism, before moving on to a consideration of some poems which are deemed to be ecopoetic in their stance and expression (including some by the author). This work has direct relevance to the English Language Arts (in the US context) but would have interdisciplinary implications in educational settings where there are attempts at cross-disciplinary collaboration, especially between the languages, arts, social sciences and sciences.

Recommended Citation

(2024) "Ecopoetry as Mind into Matter: Some Educational Possibilities," The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE): Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ije/vol9/iss1/6