CLEARCUTTING
—from Poets Respond
May 18, 2021
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Triin Paja: “In Latvia, a man operating a harvester films a wolf saving her offspring from under felled trees and rubbish. I live in Estonia, which neighbors Latvia, and deforestation is becoming a wider issue each year, both here and there, and it is not rare to read news about barren and confused (and, at times, rare) animals amidst deforestation. There is a deepening fear and anxiety in us, as our small countries, hailed for their old forests and wildlife, follow the route of many other European countries, which leads to forests stripped bare and much of the wildlife gone extinct. Already, in my own poetry expressing this anxiety, I discern that it is not anxiety alone: it is also grief.”