This Compost: Ecological Imperatives in American Poetry

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This Compost This page intentionally left blank This Compost E C O L O G I C A L I M P E R A T I V E S IN A M E R I C A N POETRY Jed Rasula THE U N I V E R S I T Y OF G E O R G I A P R E S S A T H E N S AND L O N D O N Paperback edition, 2012© 2002 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 www.ugapress.org All rights reserved Designed by Betty Palmer McDaniel Set in 10 on 14 Janson MX by BookComp Printed digitally in the United States of America The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this book as follows: Rasula, Jed. This compost: ecological imperatives in American poetry / Jed Rasula. xv, 259 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-236) and index. ISBN 0-8203-2366-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. American poetry—History and criticism. 2. Nature in literature. 3. Environmental protection in literature. 4. Nature conservation in literature. 5. Ecology in literature. I. Title. PS310.N3R372002 811.009355—dc21 2002000856 Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-4419-5 ISBN-10: 0-8203-4419-2 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-4480-5 IN MEMORY OF MENTORS Mike Erwin Harvey Brown Mark Ruddick This page intentionally left blank Of course the old questions, why are we here?, why do we exist in the flask of visible circumstance? Only to have the animal stolen from us?,only to have our most intimate fervour destroyed? WILL ALEXANDER, Towards the Primeval Lightning Field for a meniscus tension of exhumation swells the page— fugue and segue, modicums of wonder 6 , wander for the ocus logos boundary all along the shifting , 5 bounty RACHEL BLAU DUPLESSIS, Drafts One being climbs up inside another for the revolution in art. JOANNE KYGER, Just Space This page intentionally left blank ...