In a poem called a “Song,” Linda Hogan crafts a song for turtles and other creatures killed through oil spills in the gulf. At once a praise song for the beauty of the sea, the earth, and its animals, this song also functions as a lament: for the history erased by industrial practices; for the lack of respect and love for living breathing other-than-human lives; for plastic and the plastic containers used to hold the body of a dead sea turtle. The poem veers towards a prayer, too, begging forgiveness for being “thrown off true.”
Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw novelist, essayist, and environmentalist. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and an MA in English and creative writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her books of poetry include Dark. Sweet., The Book of Medicines, Seeing Through the Sun, and many more.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
Christian Wiman — All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs
Carlos Andrés Gómez — Father
Ellen Bass — Bone of My Bone and Flesh of My Flesh
R.A. Villanueva — Life Drawing
Zaffar Kunial — The Word
Dilruba Ahmed — Phase One
Layli Long Soldier — WHEREAS my eyes land on the shoreline
Chen Chen — I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill — Ceist na Teangan (The Language Issue)
Aracelis Girmay — Consider the Hands that Write this Letter
Tayi Tibble — Our Nan Lets Us Smoke Inside
Paul Tran — The Cave
Philip Metres — One Tree
Roger Robinson — A Portable Paradise
Seán Hewitt — Suibhne is wounded, and confesses
Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi — Say My Name
Lucille Clifton — song at midnight
Chris Abani — The New Religion
Molly McCully Brown — Transubstantiation
Natalie Diaz — Of Course She Looked Back
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