My Eighteen-Month-Old Daughter Talks to the Rain as the Amazon Burns

^{Lark of my house,
keep laughing.
—Miguel Hernández}

this little lark says hi
to the rain—she calls
river as she slaps
the air with both wings—
she doesn’t know pine
from ash or cedar
from linden—she greets
drizzle & downpour
alike—she doesn’t
know iceberg from melt—
can’t say sea level
rise—glacial retreat—
doesn’t know wildfire—
greenhouse gas—carbon
tax or emission—
does not legislate
a fear she can’t yet
feel—only knows cats
& birds & small dogs
& the sway of some
tall trees make her squeal
with delight—it shakes
her tiny body—
this thrill of the live
electric sudden—
the taste of wild blue-
berries on her tongue—
the ache of thorn-prick
from blackberry bush—
oh dear girl—look here—
there’s so much to save—
moments—lady bugs—
laughter—trillium—
blue jays—arias—
horizon’s pink hue—
we gather lifetimes
on one small petal—
the river’s our friend—
the world: an atom—
daughter: another
name for: hope—rain—change
begins when you hail
the sky sun & wind
the verdure inside
your heart’s four chambers
even garter snakes
and unnamed insects
in the underbrush
as you would a love
that rivers: hi—hi

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“We live next to the Susquehanna River and my daughter lovingly calls everything associated with water (rain, bathtub, kitchen faucet) ‘river.’ Seeing her engage nature with such joy has made me more keenly aware of how important it is to act against climate change. I invoke the great Spanish poet Miguel Hernández’s most famous poem ‘Nanas de la cebolla’ (in lines translated by Robert Bly) because a child’s laughter, like a poem, can be a restorative utterance, an enormous ‘yes’ despite hardship, tyranny, and ecological catastrophe.”
—Dante Di Stefano

Judges’ Citation by Julia Alvarez and Bill McKibben

About the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize 

Dante Di Stefano’s “My Eighteen-Month-Old Daughter Talks to the Rain as the Amazon Burns” is the third place winner of the inaugural Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize. Established in 2019 with generous support from Treehouse Investments, the prize is given to honor exceptional poems that help make real for readers the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment at present. Beginning with the Saturday after Earth Day, Poem-a-Day will feature this year’s three winners.