Climate as Craft
You write the sky
as if its yours,
write the parched land
with your thirst,
salted marshes,
an ending,
but not your own,
nor your fault.
The weather’s nice
today. Close your eyes
to the breeze, figure a field,
flowers instead of fire.
as if its yours,
write the parched land
with your thirst,
salted marshes,
an ending,
but not your own,
nor your fault.
The weather’s nice
today. Close your eyes
to the breeze, figure a field,
flowers instead of fire.
Cathedrals
After Willie Perdomo
We used to say,
This is nature’s cathedral.
As if one day,
cracked boughs could become a cathedral.
In other words, as if, to say,
Where is my cathedral?
As if, this will make it okay
enough to remember a cathedral.
As if we paid to play--
Who would protect a cathedral?
As if, I pray,
my children will sustain a cathedral.
As if walls and worms could stay,
so even our ruin could be their cathedral.
We used to say,
This is nature’s cathedral.
As if one day,
cracked boughs could become a cathedral.
In other words, as if, to say,
Where is my cathedral?
As if, this will make it okay
enough to remember a cathedral.
As if we paid to play--
Who would protect a cathedral?
As if, I pray,
my children will sustain a cathedral.
As if walls and worms could stay,
so even our ruin could be their cathedral.
Jared Beloff is the author of WHO WILL CRADLE YOUR HEAD (ELJ Editions, 2023). He is the editor of the Marvel inspired poetry anthology, Marvelous Verses (Daily Drunk, 2021) and has been a peer-reviewer for Whale Road Review since 2021. His work can be found at Night Heron Barks, Baltimore Review, River Mouth Review, The Shore, Contrary Magazine and elsewhere. You can find him on Twitter @Read_Instead and his website www.jaredbeloff.com. He is a teacher who lives in Queens, NY with his wife and two daughters.
I recently finished a poetry collection on climate change and the process left me questioning the political efficacy of the work and the ways we hide behind our craft or build metaphorical cathedrals out of nature “as if this would make it okay.”
I recently finished a poetry collection on climate change and the process left me questioning the political efficacy of the work and the ways we hide behind our craft or build metaphorical cathedrals out of nature “as if this would make it okay.”