Notes for a Lecture on Climate Change
Stephen Siperstein
Striding across campus
to an afternoon lecture,
thinking I can change the world—
no, not the world, but maybe
adjust the lens so students will see
a little more clearly
the inner workings
of capitalism, colonialism,
energy and power—
I pause beneath cedars
hundreds of years old.
I am beginning to worry:
If only I were more prepared, more
patient, more compassionate, more
like someone I once believed
I could grow into.
When I arrive at class
I am afraid—
being stranded with nothing
in front of people expecting solutions
to a wicked problem.
“But it can’t be solved!”
I want to yell.
“Let me tell you how
we have already lost
so many days not seeing
the weather change.”
Yet the faces do not say
Give us answers, or
Tell us the way.
They say, We are scared.
We are sad. Tell us
that you are too.Tell us
~~~~~
Stephen Siperstein lives and teaches at the Kohler Environmental Center at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. Siperstein also co-leads the Environmental Literature Institute, a summer program for environmental educators, and is the editor of the recent volume Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities. His poetry has appeared most recently in The Hopper, saltfront, and Poecology.