Poem by JoAnne Growney
Taking the Heat:
A BrainyQuote Cento Enriched by Adrienne Rich
What I worry about is climate change.
Severing the world’s design.
My father’s generation’s crisis was fighting
Fascism. Ours is fighting climate change.
We really need to kick the carbon habit.
Are humans any smarter than frogs in a pot?
Why do we keep perpetuating the problem?
No matter how rich you are, you can’t get healthy air.
I draw the curtains as the sky gets black.
Climate is not changed by dance, libation, or prayer.
Publishing Information
- A cento is a literary work made up of parts from other works. But most of the lines of this cento come from the site BrainyQuote, which means their accuracy is suspect. Only the two Adrienne Rich lines were taken from actual poems: "Boundary" and "Storm Warnings" appear in Collected Early Poems, 1950–1970 by Adrienne Rich (Norton, 1993).
- Here are the cento lines, in order: (1) Susan George; (2) Adrienne Rich ("Boundary"); (3 and 4) Nicholas Stern; (5) David Attenborough; (6) Jeff Goodell; (7) Yehuda Berg; (8) Ma Jun; (9) Adrienne Rich ("Storm Warnings"); (10) John Wesley Powell.
Art Information
- "Arctic Vision of St. Francis" © Janel Houton; used by permission.
Despite learning in poetry classes that art should not be political, JoAnne Growney sometimes uses her verse to speak against climate destruction and for women's rights. A retired mathematics professor, Growney teaches poetry workshops, writes and shares her poems—including the collection Red Has No Reason (Plain View Press, 2010)—and enjoys her grandchildren.
For more information, visit JoAnne Growney's blog Intersections—Poetry with Mathematics.
