Why I Cannot Write Poetry

Kshemaahna Nagi

Sunlight and scintillating color,
Daffodils dancing with gaiety and verve,
Nightingales and babbling brooks,
Are but words that recall old poems I have read,
Odes to temperate summers by poets long dead.
For the children of the past were nursed by the buds of May,
Lapped by gentle waves.

But I—
I am a child of the future:
Rocked by the skeleton hands of bare trees.
Roaring and tumbling tsunamis my lullaby,
Landslides a blanket upon me,
That began when the climate changed.

We live below the surface now—in caves.
Their dark, stuffy, sweltering, charred walls closing in on us.
Reading incomprehensible poems of bygone days,
Wishing our ancestors had meant their ways.

They say monkeys can type Shakespeare, given enough time.
But I cannot—
For monkeys lived in trees, back when nature nurtured us.
They could understand what the bards experienced.

I do not understand the bards.
I do not understand how summer days can be temperate or lovely.
I do not understand how the sunlight,
That once rained down as spoonfuls of golden honey,
Now beats down like the fire breath of a dragon.

I cannot write poetry,
For nature no longer nurtures—and it is our doing.

The Science

The poem is inspired by the concept of Deep Time and the "golden spike" markers in the sediment record of the Crawford Lake (possibly indicating the beginning of the Anthropocene). The earth has been dated to be 4.6 billion years old. If the entire history of the earth is analogous to a day, humans would not even have a minute in it. This breathtaking realization dawned upon James Hutton when he saw the unconformity at Siccar Point. Despite being around for such a short time, humans have had a tremendous impact on the planet and its climate (we may be at the cusp of a new geological epoch- the Anthropocene). While cyclical shifts in the climate have occurred in the past due to the Milankovitch Cycles, the climate change occurring now is different as it is more rapid. This anthropogenic forcing of climate change could have devastating effects on the world we leave to the future generations. This poem explores these effects, specifically on a child poet's psyche.

The Poet

Kshemaahna Nagi (she/her) exists in 3 isomers: the aspiring earth and planetary scientist, budding writer and artist. Deeply fascinated by the concept of surface analogues, she aspires to understand planets across the universe by studying her own. She hopes to innovate to make her planet a better place. She has invented a cost-efficient device to adsorb heavy metal contaminants from stormwater runoff after high precipitation events. She is the winner of 4 medals and an outstanding special mention in the 16th International Earth Science Olympiad and has made a preliminary discovery of 2 asteroids. She is also a proud grandmother to the third generation of birds who visit her home everyday.

Next poem: Big Air Circle Ballad by Georgy Falster