Contemporary Poetry

environment and space 165

And because the planes fl ew overhead when we spoke of the

cries of birds our every word was an awkward squawk that

meant also AH- 64 Apache attack helicopter, UH- 60 Black

Hawk troop helicopter. (p. 67 )

Trevor Paglen suggests that experimental geographers aim to
experiment with the production of space as: ‘an integral part of
one’s practice. If human activities are inextricably spatial then
new forms of freedom and democracy can only emerge in dialecti-
cal relation to the production of new spaces’.^73 Equally, Spahr’s
attempts to enable a poetry which performs an ecopoetics that
is not only topological and tropological, but entropological and
ethnological, creates new imaginative spaces for environmental
enquiry.

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

• Ecological poetry can initially be understood as poetry that
  addresses the environment (often associated with nature poetry).


• An awareness of local spaces and cultures is often highlighted
  in the poetry of contemporary poets committed to region and
  locale.


• Contemporary poets examine the relationships of the individual
  to the cityscape through representations and psychological
  interpretations of urban space.


• Poetic travelogues offer a further perspective on identity, com-
  munity and environment.


• Recent developments in ecocriticism consider the intersection
  of economic pressures and global concerns on the environment,
  a gesture which has been framed in poetry as ‘ecopoetics’.


• Recent poetry engaged in exploring ecopoetics often
  presents future landscapes and spaces (frequently apocalyp-
  tic), and searches for ways of making global relations and
  connections.