Ecopoet Dr Helen Moore‘s latest collection, The Last Lighthouse in Rising Seas, is celebrated as confirming her “as the most imaginative and committed ecopoet of our time.” She reflects on the book and the genesis of one poem, which conveys hope in how we can resist the forces of destruction and seek Thrutopian paths forward.
(extract)
The bleak Brutalist cement of apartment block walls
is now adorned with living skin –
Vines, Lichens, Creepers keeping MWus cool.Between disused chimney pots, there are grow-domes
for heat-loving plants, fruits in abundance.
The skyline of towers is an emerald haven –each Sparrow’s visit is a triumph
as wild kin-tribes heal from the brush with extinction
that MWe’ve weathered together.
Dr Helen Moore is a pioneering British ecopoet, socially engaged artist, writer, translator and academic based in Bristol.
How can we communicate the unspeakable, illuminate the shadow realms of our society and intersecting social / ecological crises, whilst negotiating our own loves, losses, responsibilities? The Last Lighthouse in Rising Seas situates the personal within the social and geopolitical structures that circumscribe our lives, with poems that describe weathering gentrification and the housing crisis, that make connections between forced migration and climate, that explore our addiction to fossil fuels (our ‘petronarcosis’), and that develop themes of regeneration and co-creation with the more-than-human world.
In the Global North, our imaginations have been largely colonised by capitalism and empire, and it can be incredibly hard for us to think beyond doomerist attitudes and apocalyptic visions of the future. Of course, things now look very bad. We have wasted decades when we could have been collectively addressing our dependence on fossil fuels. Maybe it is too late to prevent humanity’s extinction? But the truth is that the future is unknown and is co-created from moment to moment.
By uniting to survive, we can still resist the forces that would break us while simultaneously seeking Thrutopian paths forward. ‘Climate Adaptation #3’ is influenced by Solar Punk, Permaculture and existing examples of liveable cities. Here in Bristol, I long for the scenes I depict to be my lived reality. For cars to disappear from streets. For tarmac to be ripped up and replaced with gardens. For people of all backgrounds, abilities, identities and ages to be respected as fellow citizens. Drawing this vision from the shadows of my imagination and sparking it to life through the craft of poetry, I offer it to all who seek to nurture active hope.
Note: The epigraph to the poem, by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, is from intraConnected: MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging (W. W. Norton, 2022). Names of more-than-human Beings and wild phenomena are capitalised as part of my longstanding ecopoetic practice, raising their status from the margins to which industrialised culture has relegated them.
Climate adaptation #3
‘… instead of just the solo self of separation, we realise that we’re this MWe, this intraconnected wholeness… ‘- Dr Daniel J. Siegel
Cars have become curios, features
of museums, reminding of the folly
of letting propaganda imprint hive mind.
The avenue that stretches past this flat
now has trees in place of traffic,
shared grow-space where once was tarmac.
There are circular beds with flowers & veg
that MWe irrigate from rainwater tanks.
Gone is toxic run-off from roads
that flowed into arteries – rivers, sea.
Rain is diamond resource.
MWe have bike & scooter paths
weaving past walkways, where people sit,
breathe, hold hands, catch collectas –
travel pods that run on elemental energy.
Roofs harvest solar for the trickle power-flow
MWe’ve adjusted to using, & each city
has community turbines, creates zero waste.
The bleak Brutalist cement of apartment block walls
is now adorned with living skin-
Vines, Lichens, Creepers keeping MWus cool.
Between disused chimney pots, there are grow-domes
for heat-loving plants, fruits in abundance.
The skyline of towers is an emerald haven –
each Sparrow’s visit is a triumph
as wild kin-tribes heal from the brush with extinction
that MWe’ve weathered
MWour children thrive minus the stress,
anxiety, asthma that older generations suffered.
Freak storms, heatwaves, floods, fire
still test trust in each other – MWus nodes
in Great Body, where all Beings are cared for, loved:
even refugees & seniors, like MWe.
The billionaires are long gone.
They came to share their vast hoardings
to serve the highest good.
The giant digital screens once inflicted on our streets
became outdoor cinemas, vertical canvases
with honeycomb visions of artists & poets.
Heart to heart in the One Heart,
hive mind now connects through telepathy & touch,
while Web’s mycelial networks
shun division, profit,
helping Mus adapt to economies of gifting
for the truly common wealth.
The Last Lighthouse in Rising Seas (2026) is published by Palewell Press, with an online launch on 21st September.
You can watch Helen reading ‘Little Ships‘ from the collection on YouTube.
The quote that “The Last Lighthouse in Rising Seas confirms Helen Moore as the most imaginative and committed ecopoet of our time” comes from Alan Morrison’s review for The Morning Star. You can read fellow poet Fiona Moore’s ClimateCultures review of Helen’s previous collection, river / run, here.