Writing Prompt #4
food on the brink of extinction
I recently read an article in the Guardian about a dinner hosted by former White House chef, Sam Kass:
Instead of dining on obscure food on the brink of extinction, the “last supper” featured recognizable dishes – salmon, oysters, coffee, wine – that could drastically change or disappear in the coming years as the climate warms and brings more volatile weather.
I thought this dinner was an interesting concept, designed to educate attendees about how food and agriculture will be affected by climate change and also how our current methods of farming influence, or in some cases, drive climate change. In our conversations about ecological grief, we tend to focus on wild nature and wilderness and often forget the agroecological loss.
Writing Prompt, part 1:
What is your favorite food?
How might climate change affect that food? How would you feel, if that food disappeared?
What would a world without coffee, wine, or chocolate feel like? Better or worse?
Write for 15 minutes.
Lobster For Sale
by Tim Seibles
Over here. in the aquarium.
Just left. of the fresh fillets.
Save your sympathy.
Usually I’m sleepy. so usually.
I sleep.
And you think. I dream of the open sea.
Nope.
When I sleep. I dream.
of sleeping.
Only difference. between this.
and the big drink: in here. it’s just. us.
and every hour. I measure. every side.
But sometimes. I see you. out there.
eating all that air:
the two-legged mouth.
You think. I’m a. “grocery.”
But I don’t care. what.
you think.
I keep one thought. one.
I keep it on. like a night-light.
all day long.
I wish you would. reach in here.
for me.
I wish you. would.
Many thanks to Kendra for hosting our writing group in my absence. This poem “Lobsters for Sale” was discussed (thanks, Catherine!) and I appreciate how the poet is speaking on behalf of the lobster. This could be an interesting model for how to write about how our “foods” perceive or experience climate change.
Writing Prompt, part 2:
Write a short poem as the voice of the favorite food you identified above. How does it feel about its surroundings? How does it experience climate change or habitat destruction and the “the two-legged mouth” it is destined to meet?
