Kelli Russell Agodon
In The Next 50 Years So Many Animals Will Go Extinct
It Will Take Earth At Least 3 Million Years To Recover
I’m not writing about the wisteria
because I’m concerned about the heart
murmur in the berry bush.
My least favorite flower is a freeway,
my least favorite freeway is a wall.
Once I took a nap in a field of bees
and all my dreams were sweet and buzzing.
How can we pollinate the earth
if we’re all asleep? Let me tuck myself
into the bee balm, let me, like a treefrog,
fall asleep on a leaf. The sky is a novel
rewriting itself with clouds. I’m not writing
about the sky because there’s an inchworm
on my coffeespoon. What are we
measuring out today? The size
of a waxwing’s heart is the same size
as a lie. But what else
can the birds do, the wisteria is also dying,
and still they sing and sing and sing.
Note: Title taken from an article of the same name.
Kelli Russell Agodon’s most recent book, Hourglass Museum (White Pine Press), was a Finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Julie Suk Prize in Poetry. Her other books include The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice and Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, Winner of the Foreword Book of the Year Prize for poetry and Washington State Book Award Finalist. She has received awards from the Poetry Society of America, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation, James Hearst Poetry Prize, and the Puffin Foundation. Her work has been featured on NPR, ABC News, and in O, the Oprah Magazine. Kelli is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press and Co-Director of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women in Washington State. www.agodon.com / www.twosylviaspress.com
Return to May 2019 Edition
It Will Take Earth At Least 3 Million Years To Recover
I’m not writing about the wisteria
because I’m concerned about the heart
murmur in the berry bush.
My least favorite flower is a freeway,
my least favorite freeway is a wall.
Once I took a nap in a field of bees
and all my dreams were sweet and buzzing.
How can we pollinate the earth
if we’re all asleep? Let me tuck myself
into the bee balm, let me, like a treefrog,
fall asleep on a leaf. The sky is a novel
rewriting itself with clouds. I’m not writing
about the sky because there’s an inchworm
on my coffeespoon. What are we
measuring out today? The size
of a waxwing’s heart is the same size
as a lie. But what else
can the birds do, the wisteria is also dying,
and still they sing and sing and sing.
Note: Title taken from an article of the same name.
Kelli Russell Agodon’s most recent book, Hourglass Museum (White Pine Press), was a Finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Julie Suk Prize in Poetry. Her other books include The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice and Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, Winner of the Foreword Book of the Year Prize for poetry and Washington State Book Award Finalist. She has received awards from the Poetry Society of America, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation, James Hearst Poetry Prize, and the Puffin Foundation. Her work has been featured on NPR, ABC News, and in O, the Oprah Magazine. Kelli is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press and Co-Director of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women in Washington State. www.agodon.com / www.twosylviaspress.com
Return to May 2019 Edition