Can Poetry Save the Earth?

Today's "Morning Edition" program on NPR featured a report on Can Poetry Save the Earth?, an anthology edited by John Felstiner, a Stanford university professor. We haven't spent much time discussing the literary band of the Environmental Humanities spectrum this year--and I found this feature a great reminder that EnvHum isn't all nuclearism, ethnography, and theory.

The interviewer asked if Felstiner thought if there was one poem that could help save the earth if more people knew it--and without hesitation he chose "The Well Rising" by William Stafford. He cites the humility and non-prescriptive tone of the poem, along with the idea of individual personal responsibility: "I place my feet with care in such a world."

Hear the feature and a reading of the poem at

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102795472&ps=cprs