{"id":24978,"date":"2025-07-21T01:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/24978\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T01:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:15:09","slug":"review-speech-dries-here-on-the-tongue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/24978\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u2018Speech Dries Here on the Tongue’"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Writing about the climate and other environmental topics has evolved over the past several decades, expanding from its niche origins in obscure scientific journals to mainstream popular science books and even climate fiction. However, a book of poetry that focuses on climate change is still a novelty. This excellent volumeis a welcome addition to the genre.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeech Dries Here on the Tongue\u201d packs an emotional punch. But although it tackles grim topics \u2013 indeed, the phrase \u201cmental health\u201d is often used as a euphemism for \u201cpoor mental health\u201d \u2013 the poems are not all gloomy. In their excellent preface, the editors explain that \u201c[p]oetry can serve as a space to envision alternate futures.\u201d The 21 poets, writing from an eclectic range of viewpoints, can be despairing and angry as they \u201cgrapple with the overwhelming realities of ecological destruction,\u201d but they are just as often meditative or reverent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as speech may dry on the tongue, it gives us a thirst for change,\u201d the editors point out.<\/p>\n

The title of the book comes from its opening work, \u201cMovement XV\u201d by Khashayar Mohammadi, playing on the meaning of the \u201cDAFFODILS style guide\u201d while grappling with an uncertain future. This is one of the works that examines environmental writing itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other pieces deal explicitly with mental health issues, such as \u201cbipolar\u201d and \u201cAnxiety\u201d by gregor Y kennedy [sic], or with the human relationship to nature. Many focus on specific environmental topics such as water (like \u201cBe Water\u201d by Grace), soil, or wildfires (as in the poems \u201cFire and Flood\u201d by Jennifer Wren and \u201cThree Senryu\u201d by Fiona Tinwei Lam). Pieces like \u201cIf I had a son I would call him Ben\u201d by Tara McGowan-Ross also tackles our relationship with animals. Of course, poets can never stray from writing about love, and pieces such as \u201cWhen Finding a Lover in the Anthropocene\u201d by Maryam Gowrallis bring new life to the perennial topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several poems are featured for each of the poets, giving them a chance to showcase their individual range. In some cases, the poems form a suite; in others, it is a surprise to note that the pieces are by the same poet.\u00a0The poets are not bound by traditional forms; there are neither sonnets nor any other kind of rhyming poetry in this book. In fact, several of the concrete poems, such as Gary Barwin and Elee Kraljii Gardiner\u2019s \u201cRiven Museum<\/a>\u201d, blur the boundaries between visual arts and the written word.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/p>\n

Gary Barwin and Elee Kraljii Gardiner\u2019s \u201cRiven Museum\u201d. Image: screenshot.<\/p>\n

For the most part, this choice is a success, although some of the prose poems might work better as flash fiction and a small number are needlessly obscure even in the context of modern poetry. Additionally, the breezy style of the introduction by Karen Houle, while entertaining, is somewhat jarring for this book. However, the beauty of a poetry collection like this is that the reader can browse, meditate in depth, or return many times to those pieces that evoked emotion.<\/p>\n

The best way to enjoy the book may be to use it as inspiration. When Brandon Wint, in the poem \u201cWhatever Splits a Raindrop into Fourteen Splattered Gemstones\u201d, writes:<\/p>\n

I want the stillness of forests, suppleness of moss a sparrow
nosing shrubs<\/p>\n

It is just possible to imagine that this desire may be fulfilled. Indeed, in the book\u2019s title work, the poet exhorts the reader to persist:<\/p>\n

Speech dries
Until the end, we
will keep pretending we\u2019re not\u00a0
marching for nothing.<\/p>\n

Speech Dries Here on the Tongue<\/a>
Hollay Ghadery, Rasiqra Revulva, and Amanda Shankland
2025, The Porcupine\u2019s Quill, 78pp<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Check out more Earth.Org book reviews here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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About EO<\/a> | Mission Statement<\/a> | Impact & Reach<\/a> | Write for us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Writing about the climate and other environmental topics has evolved over the past several decades, expanding from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-24978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}