The How In The World

The poems in The How in the World explore the relationship between humans and nature, how we are involved intimately in the natural world, not separate from it; how everything we have done and are doing impacts on our world; how floods, deforestation, wars and pollution are leading to the break of 'the single thread of spider-silk attached to what is left' of our disappearing world. And they ask you to imagine how you are embodied in the trees, the water, the stones. And how they are in you. And they invite you, at last, to imagine how the world might be without you in it. Imagine.

"How have we have arrived at the end of the first quarter of this century and still not yet seen ecopoetry flower in greater abundance in response to planetary threats that are now horrifying realities? Surely, this is nothing short of a neglect of duty by the global poetry community. With this book, Louise Longson shows us how urgently we need to return to that duty. How our need now is for art that tells the truth about what we've done - what we go on doing - to our one, precious Earth. This is not poetry as eco-preaching. It is poetry that calls our attention to what really matters. It does so with such originality of image, such skilful use of form and language, that it sometimes feels like a lesson from which other poets can (and should) learn."

"Reminiscent of Alice Oswald, Longson brings a fresh voice to ecopoetry. Drawing attention to the effect of human actions on the shared world where once-living creatures lie unmourned, she warns, do not stand too close to the end of the Earth. This powerful collection asks us not to avert our gaze from the burned earth and wasted blood, but to bear witness and action change."