Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Award-winning author and Mesa College creative writing coordinator Scott Starbuck shares four poems

His climate blog Trees, Fish, and Dreams also of note

  • Recycle
  • politicians 
  • into nameless moonfish
  • inside their mothers,
  •  
  • teachers
  • into students
  • of students,
  •  
  • businessmen 
  • into birds
  • saving skies
  • flying places
  • thought
  • impossible.
  • Laugh Out Loud Café 
  • (first appeared in The Raven Chronicles)
  • is so quiet it makes history museum 
  • seem like carnival ride.
  • “What’s up with the name?” I ask. 
  • “Previous owner,” I’m told,
  • and think of bad storms 
  • that change coastlines,
  • Titanic lifeboats 
  • leaving half full.
  • Ancient Forest 
  • (first appeared in The Analog Sea Review)
  • People stare at iPhones 
  • but what about listening
  • to voice of sea, 
  • geese migrations,
  • salmon splashes, 
  • cedar arms in wind,
  • like ages before
  • when men and women knew
  • quench soul hunger 
  • first thing in morning
  • before saying anything 
  • to anyone.
  • Oceans Away
  • people are affected by what you do, think, feel, believe.
  • You toss your computer, and Chinese people get sick 
  • from lead and mercury.
  • You think climate change is a hoax, and Marshall Islands sink.
  • You feel entitled because of your hard work, 
  • and people everywhere starve.
  • You believe this poem doesn’t matter, 
  • and are reincarnated as a cockroach.
Scott T. Starbuck

Scott T. Starbuck’s  Hawk on Wire: Ecopoems was a  July 2017 editor’s pick  at Newpages.com, and was selected from over 1500 books as a 2018 Montaigne Medal Finalist at Eric Hoffer Awards for “the most thought-provoking books.” His new book of climate change poems Carbonfish Blues features art by Guy Denning whose works on activism, refugees, human vulnerability, and realism are known throughout Europe. Starbuck’s climate blog  Trees, Fish, and Dreams has 45,000 views from over 40 countries, and his Manifesto from Poet on a Dying Planet is online at Spit Rock Review. Starbuck, a Mesa College creative writing coordinator, will teach his fourth Honors Climate Change Poetry Seminar spring term 2020. The poetry course can be taken in a first-term Eng 247A section, and higher-level second term Eng 247B section. Starbuck will host a public screening of  The Reluctant Radical about Ken Ward and other Valve Turners at Mesa College, May 1, 2:30-4:30 pm.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
Next Article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
  • Recycle
  • politicians 
  • into nameless moonfish
  • inside their mothers,
  •  
  • teachers
  • into students
  • of students,
  •  
  • businessmen 
  • into birds
  • saving skies
  • flying places
  • thought
  • impossible.
  • Laugh Out Loud Café 
  • (first appeared in The Raven Chronicles)
  • is so quiet it makes history museum 
  • seem like carnival ride.
  • “What’s up with the name?” I ask. 
  • “Previous owner,” I’m told,
  • and think of bad storms 
  • that change coastlines,
  • Titanic lifeboats 
  • leaving half full.
  • Ancient Forest 
  • (first appeared in The Analog Sea Review)
  • People stare at iPhones 
  • but what about listening
  • to voice of sea, 
  • geese migrations,
  • salmon splashes, 
  • cedar arms in wind,
  • like ages before
  • when men and women knew
  • quench soul hunger 
  • first thing in morning
  • before saying anything 
  • to anyone.
  • Oceans Away
  • people are affected by what you do, think, feel, believe.
  • You toss your computer, and Chinese people get sick 
  • from lead and mercury.
  • You think climate change is a hoax, and Marshall Islands sink.
  • You feel entitled because of your hard work, 
  • and people everywhere starve.
  • You believe this poem doesn’t matter, 
  • and are reincarnated as a cockroach.
Scott T. Starbuck

Scott T. Starbuck’s  Hawk on Wire: Ecopoems was a  July 2017 editor’s pick  at Newpages.com, and was selected from over 1500 books as a 2018 Montaigne Medal Finalist at Eric Hoffer Awards for “the most thought-provoking books.” His new book of climate change poems Carbonfish Blues features art by Guy Denning whose works on activism, refugees, human vulnerability, and realism are known throughout Europe. Starbuck’s climate blog  Trees, Fish, and Dreams has 45,000 views from over 40 countries, and his Manifesto from Poet on a Dying Planet is online at Spit Rock Review. Starbuck, a Mesa College creative writing coordinator, will teach his fourth Honors Climate Change Poetry Seminar spring term 2020. The poetry course can be taken in a first-term Eng 247A section, and higher-level second term Eng 247B section. Starbuck will host a public screening of  The Reluctant Radical about Ken Ward and other Valve Turners at Mesa College, May 1, 2:30-4:30 pm.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
Next Article

Ramona musicians seek solution for outdoor playing at wineries

Ambient artists aren’t trying to put AC/DC in anyone’s backyard
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader