We placed the poems in plastic paper protectors, threaded them with colorful ribbon, and festooned them from the trees. Poems poured in from all over the lower mainland, Vancouver Island, other provinces, as well as New Mexico, California, Florida, the UK, Australia, and Turkey. The exhibit included poems by major prize-winning Canadian poets like Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane, Fred Wah (the Poet Laureate of Canada), and children as young as six years of age.
Poems pirouetted like white angels. Heavy drops of rain, frost, sprigs of moss, and bark covered them and seemed the forest’s way of claiming them. We advertised the event in the local papers as the forest’s anthology. Poet had set their small gestures of creative expression beside the vaster creativity of nature.
People arrived from all over the lower mainland to stroll through the woods, pausing to read the poems. Local visual artist Susan Falk donated a painting to the ongoing work of WOLF. The Opus Women’s Choir performed in the forest.
At the Langley Township meeting just prior to the December deadline, WOLF informed the politicians they weren’t able to raise the three million. A letter from the BC Ministry of Environment arrived that afternoon saying that, in response to recent government ecological studies, McLellan Forest should be protected as an “ecological reserve.” However, they would not provide funding to allow this to happen.
Within a few days, the Mayor and Council turned around, announcing the forest had been given another reprieve. A local newspaper declared McLellan Forest the “story of the year.”
In response to grassroots initiatives, in January of 2013, the Mayor and Council sent out a press release saying they were taking the parcels in the western part of the McLellan East off the market, while authorizing the sale of the four lots to the east. The community was greatly relieved that sixty percent of the forest would be saved. It was clear that without the public outcry, and months of work, the entire forest would have been sold.
Elation was qualified by disappointment, since the portion of land the politicians wish to sell contains some of the most sensitive habit for species at risk and endangered species.
Yet poets claim this union of arts and activism a victory for all. The Han Shan Poetry Project demonstrates that the arts have an untapped potential for transforming society. Art and activism can dovetail in remarkable ways. I would say this is because art pauses before beauty, raising the conflict between conservationists and developers beyond their various ends. It appeals to a common recognition of beauty in biodiversity.
An activist must live in the paradox of unknowing. For me, it wasn’t easy being in the process without attachment to outcomes. Yet there is always the consolation that nature holds us within a larger story, a more expansive narrative; that somehow our words and actions matter.
Yes, poetry matters, as old Han Shan himself could have told us.
The forest’s story is not over. McLellan Forest East and a neighboring forest, McLellan Forest West have been taken off the market, but they are not yet permanently protected. If you wish to help, please write the Township of Langley and the Provincial government of BC, urging them to work together to designate McLellan Forest East as a park or ecological reserve both for the community and for posterity.
No comments:
Post a Comment