Happy Be-earth-day my loves
Earth Day newsy things to make the heart sing, from DIRT's editor
In my quiet way, and for years now, I’ve been wishing loved ones a Happy Be-earth-day to reflect my way of seeing birthdays as being earth, as celebrating a being of the Earth, because to be earth feels true to a sense of ‘arriving in the world’. I feel so comfortable in the notion that I am earth, that this version of the infinite energy is here this time, as this person, that it feels natural to me to celebrate my be-earth-day, the day I be-came known (again). I note that no-one has said it back to me yet, but I live in hope!!
Today, on Earth Day 2025, in the year of maximum enshitification* of our systems and cultures, I’d like to celebrate a couple of things I’ve been instrumental in be-earthing recently.
Happy Be-earth-day to Bending The Arc magazine which publishes stories, poems and features that bend the arc of the possible towards a thriving future on Earth. We launch today with a cracking thrutopoem by vet and poet Ilse Pedler. She deftly takes us into a near future where what might seem unimaginable now has become the norm — just like no-one in the bible needed to say, ‘They went to town by camel’, because camels were so normal. I suggest you go to town with Ilse’s poem… and follow along for the rest of the magazine by subscribing.
Modron Magazine have an Earth Day Special featuring a delicious feast of curated offerings, all of which are worth your time today, but especially I’d like to point you towards A Manifesto By Thrutopian Poets from Ilse Pedler, Hilary Watson and yours truly, which is all about experimenting and developing / creating thrutopian poetry.
“Let’s imagine writers digesting the dead matter falling from the dying systems and returning the nutrients to people as stories to sustain new kinds of spaces, systems and narratives of possibility.”
“With thrutopoems (yes, I just made that up!) we’re feeling our way past the obvious obstacles of doom and into the possible… so thrutopoetry is going to be where we meet each other openly in our struggles and link arms, wipe our tears and choose to do better.”
I hope you’re having a beautiful be-earth-day wherever you are. Please consider writing thrutopoems or thrutopias (fiction) for Bending The Arc, we’d love to read your work (subscribe to submit).
DIRT plantable poetry had The Most Wonderful time up at the StAnza Poetry Festival in St Andrews in March, where we launched Hertz by Alycia Pirmohamed and Hannah Copley — the audience followed us in poems through the park and we planted Hertz in a wild corner to do it’s sprouty thang. By the way, now would be a great time to sow your seeds and plant your poems too.
Thank you for your continued engagement with the project and love for DIRT plantable poetry. We’re lining up the next collaboration, figuring out how to fund and spread the word. What if… all poetry was as good for Earth as our DIRT poems, eh? What if…
* Cory Doctorow describes the gradual decline in quality of online products and services, often as a result of prioritising profit over user experience, as enshitification. It’s Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year no less.