I had been mulling over the idea of doing a call for an issue of The Indianapolis Review that was in response to environmental issues and climate change. I never officially announced this, but we kept getting excellent poems that responded to my seemingly psychic call.
It’s not all coincidence, of course. How can any sensitive person ignore the doom and disaster all around us? Not respond to the breathless feeling of helplessness as you read a report on climate change? These intense fears and changes to our world are certainly making their way into our art and poetry.
Poems like Nisha Atalie’s, “The Trip Home” that mentions pollution in and around ‘the region’ of Chicago. A very Indiana poem, I might add! And Crystal Subhaga Bacon’s poem, “Season of Fire, Season of Loss“, which invokes the Northwestern landscape and wildfires.
There are mentions of the melting icecaps in Alfred Fournier’s gorgeous poem, “Glacier,” and the questioning of the carbon footprint of the fancy Van Gogh The LUME exhibits all over the country in Dan Grossman’s poem, “Van Gogh at THE LUME“. There is wide range, which I adore.
I began assembling these poems into our Spring Issue. Not ALL of the poems here respond to climate change and environmental issues, but MANY do, and I hope that you are able to discover gems among them all.
I had thought of creating a folio, of separating them from the ‘regular’ poems, but I just thought it was somehow wrong. Climate change, the earth, nature, human survival is in the background of all poems. Love and relationships, seeking meaning, wondering why we’re here, it’s all related, right? Perhaps.
I also have to mention that we have an amazing trio of writers who are sharing their altars / spiritual-creative spaces with us this issue! Those writers are Aliza Einhorn, Jennifer Givhan, and Kailey Tedesco. If you have an altar making practice and would like to request to be in an upcoming issue of Indianapolis Review, we still have a couple more altar-features coming up for Summer and Fall. Please see our submission guidelines.
I hope you enjoy this issue as much as we do!
Sincerely,
Natalie Solmer, editor-in-chief
Indianapolis, May 2022
View from the editor’s desk: spring in Indianapolis + altar-ish desk