"Singing / is a spell"

As humans shelter in place all over the world, animals domestic and wild, confined and free, are responding to drastically-changed landscapes. Coyotes have been spotted in downtown San Francisco and packs of boars have entered the center of Barcelona. Animals fed by tourists are going hungry and some animals at the zoo are lonely and bored. Many of us are noticing, perhaps for the first time, the wide variety of species that carry out their lives live near, or within, our homes. Our poetry exercise today encourages you to view this sudden shift in our landscapes, and our connection with nature, as a portal to imagine the landscapes of the distance past and future.

Time yourself as you write in some way (with a timer, the length of a song, or the length of a page). Write for roughly 10 minutes in response to the following prompt. Try to write for the whole time, without stopping, in sentences, with no line breaks. Work to get all of your thoughts on the page, without worrying about what you are writing, or how. It is encouraged to follow wherever your mind leads.

• Look out your windows. What animals are you able to see or hear? What insects? What traces do they leave behind?
• Imagine the landscape 10 years ago. Then 50, 100, 1,000, and 1,000,000.
• What species exist now that existed back then? What do you imagine they remember? What do you imagine they miss now?
• Imagine the landscape 10 years in the future. Then 50, 100, 1,000, and 1,000,000.

Read “The Green Bee-Eater” by Pascale Petit.

Questions to consider, on your own in writing, or in conversation with others:

• How does the speaker describe the Green Bee-Eater? What is special about this bird? Why does the speaker focus on this bird and not another?
• What does the speaker compare to the Green Bee-Eater?
• Who is the "you" in the poem? Why does the speaker use "you" and not "I?"
• What changes between the beginning and end of the poem? Between the two songs of the Green Bee-Eater?

Writing Assignment
Write a poem that focuses on a creature, and imagines that creature in a landscape at a particular time in the past, or a particular time in the future. You may incorporate research, or rely on your imagination.