Our week here on My Poetic Side begins with a look at Carol
Ann Duffy”s fight for the endangered insects. We also take a look at the winner
of this years Jackson Prize.
Carol Ann Duffy Fights for the Insects with Poetry
As Carol Ann Duffy nears the end of her
time as the UK poet laureate, she has marked the occasion with the introduction
of poems about the vanishing world of insects. Duffy has brought together a
selection of poems that celebrate both the beauty and the variety that can be
found in the insect world, a world that is sadly facing extinction. The are
poems by Daljit Nagra, Paul Muldoon and Alice Oswald – to name just a few – in
the collection.
In her introduction to the selection of poems Duffy says
She goes on
to talk about the fact that she could so easily have asked the poets who
contributed to write about Brexit, but this was much important. The inspiration
for the poems is an article published earlier this year in the journal,
Biological Conservation. The article published the findings of the first global
scientific review into the insect population. Their findings were that over 40%
of species are in decline and as many as a third are endangered.
The poems
and the message that they carry seem particularly relevant at a time when
school children have been demonstrating against climate change, and Extinction
Rebellion have been featuring so heavily in the news with their protests over
Easter. The poems have been specially commissioned by Duffy to highlight this
plight.
Here we
reproduce an extract of Duffy’s poem:
2019 Winner of the Jackson Prize
The winner of this year”s Jackson Prize, which carries a $65,000 award, has been announced as the poet Joy Harjo.
The prize is given to an American poet who is “deemed worthy of greater
recognition”. The prize was started in 2006 and is named for the family of John
and Susan Jackson. To be eligible, a poet must have published at least two
books which have been given literary acknowledgement. The nominations are
chosen in secret by a panel of poets who are anonymous and then judged by a
panel of their peers. Previous winners
include Henri Cole, Claudia Rankine and Elizabeth Alexander.
In addition to writing several books of poetry, Harjo has also penned
the memoir “Crazy Brave”. In addition to this, she is also a musician
and singer who has released several albums.
