ISAN 2026 Presentation: the earth knows my inner life and other poems (working title)

Title: The earth knows my inner life and other poems

Abstract

This presentation explores new poems, in connection to nature, incorporating Autoethnographic poetry and performance at the intersection of climate action and activism and social /climate justice. Earlier in my doctoral research, undertaking an embodied practice-based research inquiry into collaborative creative processes between artists, communities and institutions, unexpectedly I encountered, a large contaminated land site at the centre of the research. This was revealed through the interconnecting narratives of diverse research participants. The findings were developed into a series of multimodal poetic and Autoethnographic Performances. As part of this process, I developed an emergent methodology “Sensory Poetic Relationship Mapping” (Prince, 2022) intersecting arts-based inquiry, narrative inquiry and experiments in ethnography. The findings in this process revealed, performed at the centre often marginalised community narratives in contrast to the dominant narratives by interconnected institutions of power.

Incrementally and iteratively over time I have developed multimodal works focusing on human relationships in connection to nature, including my own relationship with the earth. This exploration includes ‘found’ poetry in response to climate change, and other forms of poetic inquiry. In parallel, recently I was engaged as coordinator on a subject that focused on students developing collaborative climate action projects in partnership with a local museum. These embodied experiences and influences at times overlap, and have been a springboard in the development of new poems.

The earth knows my inner life

To touch her,
feel her oneness,
my hair becoming her branches,
my feet tangle and play in her dirt,
my bones deepen in her ravine,
I trace her open sky

The earth says feel me speak in your bones,

in your flesh,
in presence,
in love.

A site-specific reading of a selection from these poems (as works in development) accompanied by poetic imagery and movement, will be performed in synergy with a short discussion on the context and methodological approaches informing their development.

Please note: the Zoom recording has reduced the audible sound in the replay of the creative works - please see the works with their full sound on You Tube below:

Creative works only (short videos):

Part 1: The earth knows my inner life (poem only)    • Part 1: The Earth Knows My Inner Life, FIN...  

Part 2: Silence, resistance, Climate Wars and other poems (poems only)    • Part 2: Silence, Resistance, Climate Wars ...  

A longer version of this presentation with a further background is available here:    • ISAN 2026: The earth knows my inner life a...  

Thank you for your time.
Dr Cali Prince

Note: this is the updated revised version and the sound issue has been fixed.