Well, this was a lovely discovery today: I happened to come across a video of an online service for a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and the theme for service was “Ecology and the Poetic Turn.”
Multiple participants take part in the service, but it’s pulpit guest Freesia McKee whose contributions focus on the topic. In her opening remarks, McKee discusses ecopoetry and the volta, noting that voltas are those points at which “the poem cuts deeper.” She also notes how the volta’s sharp turns can “foster insight for the creator and the experiencer alike.” Additionally, McKee notes that voltas aren’t just the stuff of poetry: they also occur in real life–and she recounts some of the many voltas she experienced on walks while living in Indiana, sharp turns between, as she puts it, alienation and belonging.
In the second part of her contribution to the service, McKee reads some of her own work–poems and a micro-essay.
If you have a few minutes, I hope you’ll check this out–it’s some lovely, smart, insightful, moving stuff–
And, if you’re interested in exploring further some of the links between ecopoetry and the poetic turn, you might check out the posts on this site that present Nicholas Royle on veering and Peter Sachs on “the dolphin’s turn.”
Structure & Surprise 