Anthropocene Poetics: Deep Time, Sacrifice Zones, and Extinction

How poetry can help us think about and live in the Anthropocene by reframing our intimate relationship with geological time

The Anthropocene describes how humanity has radically intruded into deep time, the vast timescales that shape the Earth system and all life-forms that it supports. The challenge it poses—how to live in our present moment alongside deep pasts and futures—brings into sharp focus the importance of grasping the nature of our intimate relationship with geological time. In A...