Dear Body of Water

DEAR BODY OF WATER is a poetic water-harvesting project through mail-art to address bodies of water as fellow living beings on this Earth.

 

This project launches at the Poetry Center in conjunction with my 2023-2024 community workshops on Relational Ecologies: Writing with a More-than-Human-World. Addressing bodies of water as living beings (as in, DEAR BODY OF WATER) hopes to reframe water in the climate crisis (floods or droughts, rising sea levels or retreating lakes and rivers) less by fear than by care: growing communal interrelations.

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What body of water is dear to you?

What lake, river, ocean, creek, or aquifer supports your life on this planet?

We are all bodies of water.

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WILL YOU ADD YOUR VOICE TO THE CHORUS OF WATER?

DEAR BODY OF WATER recognizes bodies of water that we love (rivers, oceans, aquifers, creeks, ponds, and more) to join voices in a hopefully global chorus. Please share far-and-wide to invite participants to add more voices to the mix. Water is treated as an economic resource, yet is animate and animating. How does water melt into our histories, memories, dreams, griefs, hopes & presence? What bodies of water are overlooked? Wherever we are, the chance to hear personally about other bodies of water might grow collective care.

 

SEND US A POSTCARD!

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The University of Arizona Poetry Center has printed 6,000 postcards (pre-addressed to mail back to the Poetry Center) to join a collective poem in hopes of inspiring more storytellers of the climate crisis to cultivate care for water & watersheds. 
 

This collective call-and-response

started at Great Salt Lake (in Life in the Tar Seeps) and is watered from arroyos in the most biodiverse desert in North America and hopes to interconnect watersheds regionally, nationally, and internationally. 

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TO PARTICIPATE:

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• PICK UP & MAIL A POSTCARD at the UA Poetry Center in Tucson, AZ.​

• Live far away? Download a POSTCARD TEMPLATE (add your own image of a body of water) & FIELD GUIDE (two-fold booklet: host a water party!).

• ADD POSTAGE: When you mail your postcard.

• POST TO INSTAGRAM: Tag the #uapoetrycenter.

• BECOME A TRIBUTARY! Support this project by

participating, teaching, collaborating, postage, or outreach.

• Questions/contact? Email: dearbodyofwater[at]gmail[dot]com.

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Find water resources in your region!

For starters, from the UA Poetry Center, check out the Watershed Management Group, Water Resources Research Center, & more local water resources.

What supports for water exist near you?

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