Barbara Crooker: Happiness
This is all there is: the red cherries, the green leaves,
sky like a pale silk dress, and the rise and fall
of the sweet breeze.
Michael Simms: Sun Star
After churning all night
I wake to see the sun star
In the window, its perfect
Blossoms full of light
Colleen Hagerty: The Young People Reshaping Wildfire Policy
FireGeneration advocates for Indigenous-led, youth-powered approaches to the wildfire crisis.
John Greenleaf Whittier: Telling the Bees
Trembling, I listened: the summer sun
Had the chill of snow;
For I knew she was telling the bees of one
Gone on the journey we all must go!
Chase Iron Eyes: Supreme Court Ruling Upholds Native Sovereignty—For Now
The weaponization of our children in order to stamp out our cultures—because, of course, a family or a nation without children has no future—continued after the boarding school era with the epidemic of state-sponsored removal of our young ones and their placement into non-Native foster care.
Wendy Mnookin: The Public Garden
The sun is shining and I’m content
to be myself, walking across the Common
as families queue up by the Swan Boats,
real swans parting the water
in elegant wakes.
Susanne Wengle, Vitali Dankevych: Kakhovka Dam breach in Ukraine caused economic, agricultural and ecological devastation that will last for years
Without water from the reservoir, the fields of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea will dry out. Coastal towns on the Sea of Azov, most importantly Berdyansk, have lost their main source of drinking water.
Yahya Frederickson: Green
On the verge of June, a man
promenades a metal cart
piled with ‘aujah, the name
for almonds before they
are almonds.
Baron Wormser: Disconnected
[Tech companies] countenance evil—working children to death, creating environmental devastation, allowing labor practices to flourish not far removed from slavery, putting women in conditions that encourage sexual assault, paying people a pittance for dangerous work—while offering assurances…that no evil is being practiced.
Conrad Aiken: Summer
the vascular jukebox throbs and sobs
expounding hope propounding yearning
proposing love, but never learning
Derrick Z. Jackson: Climate Reality vs. Public Perception | Will Toxic Haze and the 2023 Danger Season Make a Difference?
Whether we wake up or not, a harsh climate is the new normal. To date in 2023, the United States has already suffered nine climate and weather disasters resulting in at least a billion dollars of damage.
Video: Julia Watson | How to build a resilient future using ancient wisdom
In her global exploration of Indigenous design systems, architect Julia Watson researches enduring innovations that could help us counter the challenges of climate change.
Michael Simms: The northern forests are burning
Here, 500 miles away
Smoke hangs over our valley
Richard Foerster: Grindadráp, 9/12/21
How tidy the aftermath of today’s slaughter,
how precise the tally, a record: 1428
slick hulls, black as polished onyx
