Plant-Human Quarterly and the Poetics of Otherness

Plant-Human Quarterly is a stunning online journal that is a project of the Plant-Human Communication Project of the Netherlands, supported by the Dutch Creative Industries Fund. The aim of the Plant-Human Communication Project, and Plant-Human Quarterly, is to bridge science, technology and art to restore our sense of belonging within, and thus our responsibility toward, natural ecosystems. I feel extremely grateful to have two poems in this Autumn Equinox edition -- you can find them here:: https://otherwisecollective.com/hill

Although writing an artist statement, or statement of philosophy and approach to one's work, is common in the visual arts world, it's not frequently seen in the poetry world. We poets are often asked to produce a 50- or 100-word bio summarizing highlights of our publication history, where we live, and an occasional "fun fact". But rarely are we tasked with setting down in writing a deeper statement of where we are coming from in our art.

I was deeply touched by the opportunity to take my time and think about exactly where my poetry comes from, and how that relates to my place in the greater human-and-non-human world.

Artist Statement: Talking & Listening to Plants

To speak or write of the “natural world” as “other” is to create that otherness, a phenomenology of being in the world which perceives the self as a separately identifiable entity in relation with other separately identifiable entities. This is a fundamental error of perception. What flows in the rivers flows in our veins. What flows through the air flows through our lungs. What we kill in our gardens, we kill on our battlefields and city streets and in the arenas of economic injustice. Everything inter-is. Our deeply erroneous construct of otherness gives rise to room for callous disregard for the lives and deaths of plant, animal, and human beings. It has allowed us to forget that what we do to others, we do to ourselves. To be a poet or artist or musician is to exercise that pinnacle of human perceptive faculties—creative imagination—to re-embody that which we have externalized. It is an act of self-healing that encompasses the world. To succeed, we must end-run cold-hearted logic and appeal to imagery, lyricism and symbolism which calls to our collective souls the way coyotes call to one another across dark valleys. Our souls must howl in answer to that call. The dusky seaside sparrow was also a grandmother in Yemen. The bees on my rose of sharon tree are also my fingers on the keyboard. I feel and I perceive, therefore I am tall grass, and hummingbirds, and brambles drawing blood from my own skin, and the bright burst of wood sorrel on your tongue.