"Association, juxtaposition, metaphor is how the poet can go further than the scientist in addressing systems. The poet can legitimately juxtapose kelp beds with junkyards. Or to get really technical, reflect the water reservoir system for a large city in the linguistic structure of repetitive water-associated words in a poem. And poets right now are the only scientist-artists who can do these sorts of associations and get away with them--all other disciplines, such as biology, oceanography, mathematics are obligated to separate their ideas into discrete topics. You're not really allowed to associate your findings about sea-birds nesting on a remote Arctic island with the drought in the West. But as a poet, you certainly can."
--Marcella Durand, "The Ecology of Poetry"
ecopoetics no. 2, fall 2002
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