Alice Major observes the comedy and the tragedy of this human-dominated moment on Earth. Major’s most persistent question—“Where do we fit in the universe?”—is made more urgent by the ecological calamity of human-driven climate change. Her poetry leads us to question human hierarchies, loyalties, and consciousness, and challenges us to find some humility in our overblown sense of our cosmic significance. Now, welcome to the Anthropocene you battered, tilting globe. Still you gleam, a blue pearl on the necklace of the planets. This home. Clouds, oceans, life forms span it from pole to pole, within a peel of air as thin as lace lapped round an apple. Fair and fragile bounded sphere, yet strangely tough— this world that life could never love enough. And yet its loving-care has been entrusted to a feckless species, more invested in the partial, while the total goes unnoticed. — from “Welcome to the Anthropocene”
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Welcome to the Anthropocene
Alice Major observes the comedy and the tragedy of this human-dominated moment on Earth. Major’s most persistent question—“Where do we fit in the universe?”—is made more urgent by the ecological calamity of human-driven climate change. Her poetry leads us to question human hierarchies, loyalties, and consciousness, and challenges us to find some humility in our overblown sense of our cosmic significance. Now, welcome to the Anthropocene you battered, tilting globe. Still you gleam, a blue pearl on the necklace of the planets. This home. Clouds, oceans, life forms span it from pole to pole, within a peel of air as thin as lace lapped round an apple. Fair and fragile bounded sphere, yet strangely tough— this world that life could never love enough. And yet its loving-care has been entrusted to a feckless species, more invested in the partial, while the total goes unnoticed. — from “Welcome to the Anthropocene”
Alice Major observes the comedy and the tragedy of this human-dominated moment on Earth. Major’s most persistent question—“Where do we fit in the universe?”—is made more urgent by the ecological calamity of human-driven climate change. Her poetry leads us to question human hierarchies, loyalties, and consciousness, and challenges us to find some humility in our overblown sense of our cosmic significance. Now, welcome to the Anthropocene you battered, tilting globe. Still you gleam, a blue pearl on the necklace of the planets. This home. Clouds, oceans, life forms span it from pole to pole, within a peel of air as thin as lace lapped round an apple. Fair and fragile bounded sphere, yet strangely tough— this world that life could never love enough. And yet its loving-care has been entrusted to a feckless species, more invested in the partial, while the total goes unnoticed. — from “Welcome to the Anthropocene”
Alice Major, Edmonton’s first poet laureate, has published 11 books of poetry and essays, many of which explore her long-standing interest in the sciences. She is the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta 2017 Distinguished Artist Award. Her most recent publications with UAP are Standard candles and Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science. You can find her online at www.alicemajor.com
Table of Contents
Prologue -In medias res Welcome to the Anthropocene -Welcome to the Anthropocene -The local globe -Windfall advisory -There goes the neighbourhood -Guardians of Eden -Privacy acts -Bird singularities -Dust to dust -Annual grains -Demeter waits at the arrivals gate -Red sky at … -Climate change debate -Badger -Mouse dreams -Ratatoskr -Waltz, wasp A working world -Office hours -I heard the bells … -Staff Christmas lunch -Free time -Receptionist -Bell curve -The Gambler’s Fallacy -After a morning spent in a visioning session with a well-paid consultant -Among the Magi Long division -Catena -Zero divided by zero -Complex number plane -Discounted annuals -Draft of a poem on ‘inclusion’ Discounted annuals -The hat -The realms of asphodel -Kind to a cat -Child care -Old Anna -The things we drag behind us Laundry hearts -This afternoon before the clocks turn back -In memoriam -Battle River country -Season of metal -Laundry hearts -Within, without -In every tongue -Threshold -Sun thread -Foil -Circadian Arcadias The poet’s handbook of cognitive illusions -Hallucinating the muse -Pronominal -Pathetic fallacy -Pareidolia -The Texas sharpshooter fallacy -Necker cube illusion -Confabulation -The League of Poets Burial Society Epilogue -Cledonism Notes Acknowledgements
