Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

the sun is a blister overhead.

— Lucille Clifton / “jasper texas 1998”

As scorching heatwaves intensify and the frequency of wildfires surges … many European travellers … changed how they plan their holidays. Three in four (76%) European travellers are adapting their behaviour to the climate crisis…

— Clea Skopeliti / “‘My escape is going north’: heatwaves begin to drive tourists in Europe to cool climes” / The Guardian

Steadfast and awful, my tall father / Hit hard as a hailstorm. He’d leave marks… Like the sound of my mother weeping again, / No sound beating ends where it began.

— Jericho Brown / “Duplex”

The weather seems to be on steroids and natural disasters increasingly appear to be less and less natural. But this is not the new normal. What we are seeing now is only the very beginning of a changing climate caused by human emissions of greenhouse gasses.

— Greta Thunberg / The Climate Book: The Facts and Solutions

I am not in the mood
For anything
I leak desire

I owe this all to poetry
Strange humor
I found you again

— Dorothea Lasky / “Twins”

Americans have traded sedans for crossovers and SUVs for full-size pickups with total abandon over the past decade. To the extent that we think at all critically about the sheer bulk of the vehicles we drive, we’re usually motivated by environmental concerns. One common notion—though auto-safety experts will say it’s not that simple—is that it’s safer to get around in what’s basically a tank. But those benefits, exaggerated as they may be, are only for people inside the vehicle. People outside—pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair users—are in more peril.

— Angie Schmitt / “Big Cars Are Killing Americans“ / The Atlantic

it’s raining in Athens too, a brood of stars jump

on the hood as I race onto Route 441 & sob

over a cold voice on the radio explaining God.

— Abhijit Sarmah / “In Her Last Phone Call”

What I’m Listening To:

Sing into the silence

And work out your thoughts for yourself

— Loma / “Turnaround”