PhD Scholar
Ecological Humanities
E-mail: stuart.cooke@anu.edu.au

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger said that man (and, presumably, woman) dwells poetically. I am interested in asking how it is that poetry seems to open up places to us and, as a consequence of this opening, make them important. Many Aboriginal songpoems have the power to regenerate the surrounding country, and to restore the connections between people and the places they inhabit. Such poetry is a powerful method of maintaining sustainable environmental practices and, more importantly, of promoting a deep intimacy and respect for the non-human features of the terrain. Famous Western poets, such as Judith Wright and Pablo Neruda, have also used poetry as a means of giving voice to the natural world. What can we learn about dwelling poetically from these different kinds of poetry? What is it about poetic language that gives form to a world often neglected by more analytical kinds of writing and speaking? In a time of such rapid environmental change, we need to be thinking about ways in which we can evoke the living, breathing world around us so that more people will feel a stronger sense of responsibility for it.