The Word Ark

THE WORD ARK is a pocket anthology of poems responding to our fellow creatures, great and small, published at a time when not only the animal kingdom but the world at large is beset by dangers on an unprecedented scale.

What can poetry offer at such a time?

It turns out that, even as we grieve and mourn – and perhaps live in dread of what may come next – we can also love and laud and celebrate. In truth, it may be more important than ever that we do so, certainly for the creatures with whom we share this planet, but also for our own mental health and psychic well-being. For out of the kind of attention a poem requires – first of its writer, and then of its readers – a more sensitive and considerate way of being together in the world might yet emerge.