Informative Speech Final Draft
Informative Speech Final Draft, [3-17-09]
1. Jorge Avino
2. The Natural Poet
3. To Inform
4. As a result of my presentation, my audience will be able to use poetry, whether their own or someone else’s, as a medium for communicating the importance of the environment’s role in our society.
INTRODUCTION
In a world where gods of steel and glass look down upon concrete savannahs, it’s almost impossible to recall the days of old; when man looked to nature for hope, found medicines to cure just about any illness not in pharmacies and superstores, but in forests and jungles instead. These are the times where we go about life not worrying about where we’ll get our food, or if we’ll get any at all. Our days are lost to the ever-powerful dollar and industrialization continues to wreak havoc on our only chance of survival, our only prospect of avoiding extinction. Efforts are being made worldwide to help thwart this path of self-destruction; however, much of what is said goes unheard. It is our responsibility, as components of this Earth, to develop a new, more emotive way to educate the world on the dangers of not being environmentally cognizant. Luckily for us, though, some have already found the key to unlock our cold hearts and remind us that our very existence is dependent on the survival of this planet. These “naturalists” use poetry to tap into the well of emotions we keep hidden and pull our heartstrings with effective descriptions and subtle nuances to ground us in what is truly real. As a self-proclaimed poet, I find this to be the most effective way to communicate that which dwells in the spiritual realm and not in the physical. Emotion is, in fact, the most basic and natural aspect of being human. Today I will show you how poetry has been used to shed light on a subject that has existed for over two hundred years, the environmental degradation of our home. By exploring some notable poets and their work, we will see how man’s self-image influences how we interact with our environment, the concept of balance between textual and referential needs, and the use of poetry as an effective medium to bring change.
BODY
I. Man and Nature
Ecopoets have existed for quite some time, often called transcendentalists, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. These writers viewed the world as such that everything in the world – even a drop of dew – is a microcosm of the universe. It is this belief that led them to write about nature in a way that many had never experienced before.
A. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Perhaps the most influential ecopoet of his time was Ralph Waldo Emerson. He saw the harsh reality of a planet abused and chose to communicate his fear of possible human extinction by reminding us that we, as humans, are the newest addition to the global ecosystem, and the most frail. In a poem called “Song of Nature”, Emerson begins writing of the universe and how our planet came to be. He continues by writing how all the Earth’s creations came before mankind. I specifically chose these two excerpts from the poem as they show the reality that before man was Earth, and after man fades away, Earth still remains. [PP text: Song of Nature]
B. Henry David Thoreau
A friend of Emerson, Henry David Thoreau believed that nature was the outward sign of inward spirit, and Emerson once stated that this belief expressed the “radical correspondence of visible things and human thought.” This idea is the foundation that modern day ecopoets will base their poetry on. Thoreau differed from Emerson, however, in that he depicted the planet as “dead” due to our overindulgence of its resources, whereas Emerson viewed the planet as a permanent entity that instead of “dying,” gets rid of what is harming it. A great example of this idea that the planet was “dead” was written by Thoreau in a poem called “Epitaph on the World.” [PP text: Epitaph]
II. Textual and Referential Needs
What these poems attempt to do is point out the imbalance that exists between mankind and nature. But before we can understand how to balance the environmental scale, we need to understand the different needs of humans. Only then can we determine what we really need and what we can do without.
A. Harder Than it Seems
Gary Snyder, a modern day ecopoet, suggests that “one maintains ethical health by balancing the textual and the referential.” The textual are the imaginative needs of humans for pleasure and the referential are the survival needs of life on Earth. Armed with that knowledge, we can now begin to do away with those little extravagancies that we have all indulged in at one point in our lives. You know, the drive to the store a couple blocks away, the extra gallon of water wasted when we leave the faucet running while brushing our teeth. You get the picture. While this is a fine concept, the problem arises when you try to communicate it to someone.
III. The Poetic Medium
In order to convince the masses that drastic measures must be taken, you have to make it so that they see the inherent danger of their continued abuse. Enter sustainable poetry.
A. Keeping Humans and Nature Separate
While experts agree “that achieving a sustainable environment depends on changing behavior, such as patterns of production and consumption, the question is how to persuade people to re-examine how they live.” This is where a carefully and properly written poem can succeed like no other medium can. Sustainable poetry does not subordinate nature to a superior human perception; instead it treats nature as a separate and equal entity and respects it as a series of ecosystems. It then becomes clear that these ecosystems sustain every moment of our lives and it becomes impossible to reduce them to nonexistence. Leonard Scigaj, author of Sustainable Poetry, states that “a sustainable poem is the verbal record of an interactive encounter in the world of our sensuous experience between the human psyche and nature, where nature retains its autonomy.”
B. The Voice of Reason
What makes the sustainable poem different from any other poem is that it does not project human fears or aesthetic designs on nature. Instead it gives nature a voice separate and equal to that of humans. This is done to create a balance where both humans and nature can survive. We see a wonderful example of this in Emerson’s “Song of Nature.” He gives the planet a voice and through this separate and equal voice we see the historical events described from a different perspective.
CONCLUSION
When the time comes when food and water are globally rationed and the highly acidic rain caused by years of pollution keep us from going outside, it will be too late. The Earth will either rebel and cause the extinction of humanity or it will die, which in turn, will also cause the extinction of humanity. Now is the time to reflect on the words of the great transcendentalist poets. The written words of these men have served to entertain many, but the true meaning behind their poetry is to inspire – to inspire us to make smart and responsible decisions about our needs. Now is the time to truly accept that we cannot survive without nature and its complex, yet fragile ecosystems. Now is the time to reach out and use sustainable poetry to communicate the needs of our planet to its most dangerous inhabitant, us. [PP text: Proverb]
REFERENCES
Suite101.com. (2008, Feb 28). Eco-Faith and Sustainability: How Religion and Poetry can Help Save the Planet. Retrieved March 16, 2009, from http://environmentalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/ecofaith_and_sustainability
Poets,org. (2009). “Song of Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15483
Scigaj, Leonard. (1999). Sustainable Poetry. Kentucky: University Press.
Transcendentalists Home Page. (2002). Henry David Thoreau. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://www.transcendentalists.com/1thorea.html
American Transcendentalism Web. (1999). Thoreau. Retrieved March 16, 2009, from http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/thoreaupoems.html
