Rumi's Poem "An Empty Garlic" from about 740 Years Ago is like Our Outdated Carbon Addiction

An Empty Garlic

You miss the garden,
because you want a small fig from a random tree.
You don't meet the beautiful woman.
You're joking with an old crone.
It makes me want to cry how she detains you,
stinking mouthed, with a hundred talons,
putting her head over the roof edge to call down,
tasteless fig, fold over fold, empty
as dry-rotten garlic.

She has you tight by the belt,
even though there's no flower and no milk
inside her body.
Death will open your eyes
to what her face is: Leather spine
of a black lizard. No more advice.

Let yourself be silently drawn
by the stronger pull of what you really love.

(Used with permission of translator Coleman Barks, author of The Essential Rumi, p. 50)  Another great Rumi poem is "The Snake-Catcher’s Tale."

Hawk on Wire: Ecopoems Book Launch at Vanguard Culture May 2, 2017

This is part of my May 2 book launch reading sponsored by La Jolla Historical Society's project WEATHER ON STEROIDS: THE ART OF CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE.  About 50 people attended. Many stayed after to ask questions and share concerns and ideas about climate change. 

Hawk on Wire Published by Fomite Press in Vermont

This book was a July 2017 "Editor's Pick" (along with 
The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury) at Newpages.com, 
and was selected from over 1,500 books as a 2018 
Montaigne Medal Finalist sponsored by Eric Hoffer Awards
for "the most thought-provoking books." It is available at Amazon.com or BN.com. The Kindle price is $4.99.

Climate change science and prophecy explored in poetry are themes in my new book. Many thanks to The Yale Center for Environmental Communication's Climate Connections for distributing an interview about my book throughout the U.S. via a syndicate of more than 340 radio stations and online via podcast and internet radio.  

I'm grateful to Dr. Michael Potts, University of South Australia, for his review of my book, and Vivian Hansen, University of Calgary, for her review. 

I also appreciate cover art from English artist Guy Denning, and endorsements from John Shoptaw, John Keeble, Daniela Gioseffi, Anne Elvey, Simmons B. Buntin, 
Gail Entrekin, Michael Spring, Thomas Rain Crowe, Teresa Mei Chuc, Senior Research Scientist at IPAC Caltech Yun Wang, Prartho Sereno, Eric Magrane, and Daniel Hudon. 

Thanks to ASLE, The Oregonian, San Diego Reader, Amsterdam Quarterly, Split Rock Review in Minnesota, and POETRY MAGAZINE's Reading List: July/August 2017 (Part II) for promoting the book (from Craig Santos Perez).

New York University and City College of San Diego sent notices they will be using my book in their Nature Writing classes. Maybe a generous donor will send my book to all professors/teachers receiving the bogus mailing from The Heartland Institute (Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming) so students can explore head/heart poetry informed by real science and real scientists. 

The following libraries added my book or gave notice they will add it: General Library of the University of Minho in Portugal, UC San Diego Library, San Diego State University Library, San Diego Public Library, University of Oregon Knight Library, Washington State University (Vancouver Campus Library), University of Arizona Libraries, University at Buffalo Libraries in New York, Los Angeles Public Library, University of Wisconsin - Madison General Library, Portland State University Branford P. Millar Library, Linfield College Library, Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst, Eastern Washington University JFK Library, University of Indianapolis Krannert Memorial Library, Boise State University Albertsons Library, Library of Congress, Sno-Isle Regional Library System, and Newport Public Library (Oregon). If you like my book, please ask your local library to order it.