May and June 2016 we will share poetry, prose poetry, and visual or verbal story - may be collage - associated with the grief/love experienced in times of assimilation (merging to one) and regeneration/diversification.

Please consider the following questions as you weave personal experience of assimilation and reformation with your experience of cultural assimilation, deforestation and desertification, ocean acidification / warming, and regeneration.

Is assimilation necessary?

Must assimilation be painful?

Must assimilation be violent?

What is the value in assimilation?

What does the regeneration / diversification process look like?

How does the regeneration process influence the next form of the individual and community?

Let's see what comes through each of us!

Here is a poem written in 2014 that weaves Megan Hollingsworth's experience of psychophysical/spiritual assimilation and regeneration with language assimilation and regeneration. The link below goes to the most recent extinction witness post 'Bridge the Gap', where this poem joins more in reflection from Insterspecies & Intersectional Justice and Forest - Climate conference.

MELTING POT

Already she is unrecognizable to herself; homogenized
what defined her in detail, like the limits of the seashore
and edges of life zones by elevation, precise 
hexagons of her comb blurred, fixed is in motion
softened down and confused, readied to become. Her tongue
foreign to her speaks for the first time, translates
emotion to syllables to words
Single words with meaning together and apart, momentarily meaningless
beyond inflection
Unrecognizable to herself but for this adaptation
some eternal character to be reformed when water holding her
heats just enough. Formless she rises to surface 
in wait for some genius of hand to shape her
asking as she always does in the meltdown

What shall be kept to remember me by?

http://www.extinctionwitness.org/witness/bridge-gap

Next video/audio meet: Friday, June 3, 2016 10:00 AM PST

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Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll)
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International numbers

Introduction to and user tips for Zoom video platform

image: Ayampe by Nic Fischer