This is a cento pantoum, composed of words I collected while visiting the exhibition Dear Earth at the Southbank Centre in London in July 2023. This poem has been published in Unlost, a journal of found poetry and art, #32.
I wanna be a florist. Or a gardener.
I feel compassion for felled trees
and long-distance love letters;
our distant cousins.
I feel compassion for felled trees.
Please do not touch
our distant cousins.
Neither you nor I will remember.
Please do not touch:
This is my word.
Neither you nor I will remember.
While we watch / We can’t yet mourn.
This is my word.
Tell it to the birds.
While we watch / We can’t yet mourn.
For how much longer will this land be known?
Tell it to the birds:
Care is a form of resistance.
For how much longer will this land be known?
Even a wounded world holds us.
Care is a form of resistance:
remove high heeled shoes.
Even a wounded world holds us
in a place between stillness.
Remove high heeled shoes
and long-distance love letters.
In a place between stillness
I wanna be a florist. Or a gardener.
Sources
In order of appearance:
Young boy in Cornelia Parker, THE FUTURE (Sixes and Sevens), 2023.
Souad Abdelrassoul, MeYou And The Journey, 2022.
Himali Singh Soin, we are opposite like that, ongoing.
Daiaro Tukano, describing two new works for Dear Earth.
Words on exhibition floor.
Deena Metzger, in Andrea Bowers, Eco Grief Extinction Series, Even if I Return, Neither You Nor I Will Remember, 2022.
Jenny Kendler, Tell it to the Birds, 2014-2023.
Imani Jacqueline Brown, Follow the Oil, 2019-2022.
Ofélio, Yanomami leader, in Richard Mosse, Grid (Palimi-ú), 2023.
Otobong Nkanga, Until Then.
Ofélio, Yanomami leader, in Richard Mosse, Grid (Palimi-ú), 2023.
Otobong Nkanga, Until Then.
Otobong Nkanga, quote on exhibition wall.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, quote on exhibition wall.
Instruction to visitors of Cristina Iglesias, Pabellón de Cristal I, 2014.
Otobong Nkanga, In a Place Yet Unknown, 2017.
from the honesty box 