Earlier this month I attended an event that reversed my growing despair over the sustained deadly weather patterns we have all been experiencing this summer.
The science is clear that profligate use of fossil fuels is driving climate change and melting Antarctica; but we are akin to the sorcerer’s apprentice—unable to control the power we have unleashed. Will we ever be able to give up our selfish addiction to driving behemoth vehicles just to run to the store for beer and chips or sit in the drive-through line at Starbucks?
The event that lifted my spirits was a book launch party for a new volume of poetry, I’d Rather Be Lightning, by Nancy Lynée Woo, Long Beach resident, writer, editor, educator, and community activist.
What does this have to do with climate change? Nancy is passionate about nature and respecting the earth and she shared her stage with fellow activists as well as other poets. Over 70 people found space at Wrigley’s Coffee on Willow St. that night. As Nancy put it, “My community SHOWED UP!” Yes! Count me in! A new phrase caught my attention: “eco-poetry.”
I needed to see people gathering like this. It was been hard staying positive after more than a month of triple-digit temperatures in the American southwest, the deadly rains and flashfloods in the northeast, and the recent immolation of Lahaina. Do people really care? Yes, they do!
It wasn’t a “big” event like one of Greta Thunberg’s, but it was local and filled with people from all walks of life. High school senior Claire Beeli (Long Beach’s Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate) shared two poems about oil in the city.
Nicole Levin and Madison Hobbs from the Sierra Club and Climate Brunch shared the efforts to protect the local environment and defeat the request for 46 new oil wells in Signal Hill. Musician and writer Armin Fard shared other efforts at community organizing.
My husband’s friend and fellow poet Terri Niccum read two moving poems about life forms on planet Earth. (I will try to be more open-minded about creosote bushes.)
You get the idea. It was a multigenerational group of people, involved in life’s ordinary activities, who feel compelled to pay attention and raise their voices to protect the world Nature gave us. I share Nancy’s worries, and her cheery urgings to stay involved gave me hope that we might be able to change our behavior after all.
Enjoy Nancy’s book and its beautiful meditations on life and its gifts
Naysaying the Noise
I haven’t found one thing that the stars
aren’t a cure for
Letter from a Palm Reader
Your good fortune is this:
you believe in greenery
At Home in the Wild
My best self is parked
In a lightweight tent
Hiking boots waiting
For the sign to move
Colorado Lagoon
The geese know
When to fly, land, rest - and when
It’s time to honk like all hell,
Stretching an alarm across the sky
We were sad to see Fox’s Coffee Shop on Willow close as a consequence of the pandemic. We enjoyed the poetry events that were hosted every month.
Happily, the place has been reincarnated as Wrigley’s Coffee—new owners, new business model, and a conscious social mission:
Wrigley Coffee is a social enterprise coffee shop that provides employment opportunities for individuals facing housing insecurity, space for community organizing, space for BIPOC voices, and sources locally roasted beans.
Morning Echo 