How to resolve AdBlock issue? Arts & Life
Craig Santos Perez packs into this love sonnet, “Love in a Time of Climate Change,” echoes of many famous love poems, from Robert Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43),” to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18,” to Neruda’s “Sonnet XVII.”
In the title, he alludes wittily to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, “Love in the Time of Cholera.”
But to what end, one may ask?
To remind us of the persistence of love through times of catastrophe and change over the course of history, and to remind us that in clever and sensitive hands, a “recycled” love song can seem fresh, current and deliciously urgent.
Love in a Time of Climate Change
By Craig Santos Perez
I don’t love you as if you were rare earth metals,
conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil that cause
war. I love you as one loves the most vulnerable
species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss.
I love you as one loves the last seed saved
within a vault, gestating the heritage of our roots,
and thanks to your body, the taste that ripens
from its fruit still lives sweetly on my tongue.
I love you without knowing how or when this world
will end. I love you organically, without pesticides.
I love you like this because we’ll only survive
in the nitrogen rich compost of our embrace,
so close that your emissions of carbon are mine,
so close that your sea rises with my heat.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Carlos Santos Perez, “Love in a Time of Climate Change” from Habitat Threshold (Omnidawn Publishing, 2020.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2021 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
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- Written by: Kwame Dawes
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Halloween events are taking place in Middletown on Sunday afternoon and evening.
From 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday you can come to a Day of the Dead celebration with DJ Dragonfly including face painting and an altar for loved ones passed at Dance Yogis in Middletown.
All family members are welcome and encouraged to participate in honoring ancestors in a fun and sacred way. Dance Yogis is located at 21248 Hwy 175 in Middletown. Participation is by donation, $10 to $20.
Then, from 7 to 10 p.m., the Higher Logic Project will perform outdoors in central Middletown at the Middletown Art Center.
It’s been a long time since this beloved Lake County-based band has performed locally and there is a lot of excitement around the event. Tickets are $15 and concert proceeds will benefit HLP friend Alma “Cötí” Husson, wellness.
The current configuration includes Dooby Wells lead singer, Chris Clark on bass, Travis Austin on guitar/voice, Peter Wilson on guitar, Zack Yurik drums, Gabriel Winter keyboards and Michael Gabriel voice and steel drum.
The concert will be postponed if it rains.
The Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 in Middletown at the corner of Highway 29.
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