I finished Alison Hawthorne Deming’s latest poetry collection, Blue Flax and Yellow Mustard Flower, and sat quietly absorbing it, stunned by its power. Deming is a writer whose work in both prose and poetry is deeply, lyrically engaged with the natural sciences, environmental history, and social justice. She cares about the world and what humans have done to the earth and all who live here. To assess the damage, to see for herself, she travels to earth’s farthest, wildest reaches. Her compassion for the brave and broken world she has found dovetails with her own fortitude and courage. No doom-sayer, however, she pondered some time ago,
“What if learning how broadly destructive the human presence has been on the planet provides us with catalyzing self-awareness? What if this sensitivity to brokenness is tweaking our intelligence to make the next leap in our evolutionary history, a leap that turns the runaway force of human culture toward restraint and mutual aid [?]”