Poetry is a compressor of meaning

The Berlin Haus der Kulturen der Welt on poetry as a tool to communicate immense complexities – something I try to do in my poetic summaries of scientific articles I write about climate change:

“How poetry can help us think about and live in the Anthropocene by reframing our intimate relationship with geological time?

Easter haiku

Tulip bulbs emerge

in front of bricks in the wall

– guerilla garden.

*

Rosa Tulpen blühn

am Mauerrand entlang

– Ostern kommt bestimmt.

Sárga

Sárga a nyár, a hárs és a ginkó levele,

Sárga az utcák őszi tengere.

Sárga a nap és a ráforgók szirmai serege,

Sárga a szénadomb belseje, teteje.

Sárga a dinnye, a barack, a répa neve,

Sárga a tök, a makk, a krumpli bele.

Sárga a méz, a méhecske pollenteli feje,

Sárga a gyömbértea csípős leve és a gyömbérdarabka benne.

*

Ösz

Lehet szépen is öszülni,

Vidáman, mint a természet.

Vörös, sárga, narancs tincsek,

Sugaras kék ég felett.

i wanna, i do

i wanna be a sustainable land use nutrition agronimist,

a tree and climate finance futurist

at the intersection of the land, the business, the people, the sky,

don’t ask me why

i feel so strongly about it

but i do

for you.

Laute Autobahnlaute

In Berlin sangen sie 1980 das Westtangentenlied.

Nicht im Osten.

Aus Planierraupen schlüpften damals schon Parkplätze.

Tell me, where do the children play

?

Modern Wolpertinger

Goddesse of Cute by Eliot

Ist es ein eagle-Igel

oder ein Wiesel-Diesel?

Ein seagull-Seeigel

oder ein Eulenspiegel?

Green houses

The green got lost in houses and gases.

Now it is global, severely affected, growing, changing, additional, and scarce.

Agriculture alone

Hi there, this is an experiment. In my day job as a forester and environmental scientist, I write reports amongst other things. Technical reports. Boring reports. About important topics nevertheless. Like for example how we can change agriculture to become a solution instead of a problem for our global environment.

In order to make these reports emotionally more accessible to a wider audience, I wrote a poetic summary of my latest publication, Potentials for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Agriculture.