To honor Women's History Month, do we need a "Human Future Month?"

The Sunrise River pools at Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area are more water than ice these days. A variety of waterfowl seem to believe Spring has come early, since they've returned to the North Country. Some until Autumn migration, others just to rest before continuing North. Today we saw trumpeter swans, Canada geese, plus several varieties of ducks, from large (mallards) to small (teal?). Nesting will begin soon for those remaining here.

mixed waterfowl on Sunrise River pools

Photo by J. Harrington

Yesterday we had some business at our credit union, which brought us within a mile or so of one of our favorite bookstores, so, of course, we were obliged to stop in. There was a fascinating display of books by women authors, presumably in honor of Women's History Month (we didn't look for an explanatory sign). Included were three books we've been thinking about for awhile, so we used up the last of a Christmas gift certificate and brought home:

• Everything Comes Next, Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye


• World of Wonders, In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and


• The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

The first is a book of poetry by one of our favorite poets; the second a book of essays by a poet whose poetry we've not yet begun to read; and the third a new novel about which we've read very good things. We're about a quarter of the way through World of Wonders, intermittent insomnia increases reading time. It's a joy to read and a delightful alternative to studying about regenerative agriculture and valuing ecosystem services, which we've been doing for several weeks now. All in all, we feel very much as though we were blessed by the luck of the Irish on this St. Patrick's Day, especially since it looks as though much of next week will be rainy, which may keep us indoors instead of outside searching for pussy willows and red-winged blackbirds.

We've noticed that much of the contemporary work we find most compelling these days has been done by women, which, we know, is not to be taken as "women's work." We've been (re)reading for several years Robin Wall Kimmerer's writings on integrating traditional ecological knowledge with western science and the linkage between language and perspective toward the world. Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics provides an essential framework for rethinking alternatives to perpetual growth on a finite planet. Naomi Klein has, for many years, been informing us about the dark sides of capitalism and how it changes everything. It wouldn't be difficult to argue that women are likely to be more critical to our having a future than a history. In fact, we think there should be a Human Future Month starting next year.

Still I Rise

Maya Angelou - 1928-2014

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

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