Heather McHugh

How do we capture aspects of the natural world before they disappear?

Here’s a poem by American contemporary poet, translator and educator Heather McHugh (born August 20, 1948) which suggests recording the world in order to capture and document everything before it all disappears for good – it’s a poem about climate change and the idea of the ‘last chance’ to see certain species and societies.

Webcam the World

Get all of it. set up the shots
at every angle; run them online
24-7. Get beautiful stuff (like
scenery and greenery and style)
and get the ugliness (like cruelty
and quackery and rue). there’s nothing
unastonishing – but get that, too. We have

to save it all, now that we can, and while.

Do close-ups with electron microscopes
and vaster pans with planetcams.
it may be getting close
to our last chance –
how many

millipedes or elephants are left?
How many minutes for mind-blinded men?
Use every lens you can – get Dubliners
in fisticuffs, the last Beijinger with
an abacus, the boy in Addis Abada who feeds
the starving dog. And don’t forget the cows

in neck-irons, when barns begin
to burn. the rollickers at clubs,
the frolickers at forage – take it all,
the space you need: it’s curved. Let
mileage be footage, let year be light. Get

goggles for the hermitage, and shades for whorage.
Don’t be boggled by totality:
we’re here to save the world without exception. it will serve

as its own storage.

-- Heather McHugh