BOOKMONGER
‘A code red for humanity’
Author writes poems about a changing planet
In August, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change released a report that
involved hundreds of scientists from 66
countries around the globe.
In unequivocal terms, the report stated
that the changes we’ve observed in our cli-
mate over the last couple of decades are
unprecedented in thousands, possibly even
hundreds of thousands of years. According
to the report, some changes are irreversible
over the next several hundred years, such as
continued sea level rise.
However, the report notes that dramatic
and committed reductions in carbon dioxide
emissions still could have a benefi cial impact
on stabilizing global temperatures.
United Nations Secretary-General Antó-
nio Guterres has called this “a code red for
humanity.”
Authors around the region have been tak-
ing this threat seriously for years, and have
This week’s book
‘Between River & Street’ by Scott T. Starbuck
MoonPath Press — 114 pp — paperback, $16
written about it in various genres.
Battle Ground, Washington, writer Scott
T. Starbuck is one of those. For the bet-
ter part of a decade, he has written his blog
“Trees, Fish, and Dreams Climateblog,”
which tackles many of the issues surround-
ing climate change in the Pacifi c Northwest
and beyond. He has readers in more than 110
countries around the globe. Starbuck also
has taught ecopoetry workshops at the uni-
versity level.
Now he has a new book of poetry that
addresses climate change and how it is
adversely aff ecting the lives of all who are
CREEKS AND RIVERS FLUSH
THROUGH THIS POETRY
VOLUME, AS DOES THE
OCEAN TIDE. YOU MAY FIND
YOURSELF WATERING THE
PAGES WITH SALTWATER
TEARS OF YOUR OWN.
‘BETWEEN RIVER &
STREET’ PROVIDES STARK
TESTAMENT TO OUR TIMES.
accustomed to living in this particularly lush
and wonderful part of the world.
Published by MoonPath Press, the book
is titled “Between River & Street.” Even
the evocative black and white photograph
on this slender volume’s cover of the Asto-
ria Bridge soaring over abandoned pilings
below hints at the potency of transitions and
the gray areas in between.
Starbuck intersperses poems about
bucolic Northwest settings like “Wild Straw-
berries,” “Lights in Doug Fir ” and “A Spell
of Birds and Fish” with darker observations
about the constructs of modern civilization
that encroach upon those places.
“Remembering Rocky Creek” is a three-
part, four-page poem about how “… land
and sky / migrations of men / replace the
ancient ones of animals.” And how gray
concrete pools that Starbuck calls “mod-
ern salmon ranches” now substitute for rush-
ing creeks where salmon “once planted
the secret life of the race / beneath autumn
leaves and pebbles ….”
In another poem, “Salmonspeak,” he
writes:
‘Between River & Street’ is written by Scott T.
Starbuck.
Maybe we never needed gray raceways /
and 5 gallon plastic buckets /
to propagate our race.
Or maybe we’re beyond the point for
remedial eff orts for any of us. Starbuck’s
poem, “Tsunami,” is a wrenching realization
that there is nowhere left to run.
Creeks and rivers fl ush through this
poetry volume, as does the ocean tide. You
may fi nd yourself watering the pages with
saltwater tears of your own. “Between River
& Street” provides stark testament to our
times.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
barbaralmcm@gmail.com
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