This volume comprises 190 poems by 133 poets: old favourites such as Tennysons The Song of the Brook and Wordworths Upon Westminster Bridge are joined by 20th century poetry from both sides of the Atlantic, with writers including A.R. Ammon, Wendell Berry, Carol Ann Duffy, U.A. Fanthorpe, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion, Sylvia Plath and William Carlos Williams. Poets muse on the particularity of rivers, use the river as a metaphor for lifes journey, from spring to the sea of unknowing, and explore the magical qualities of water, its transformations and patterns. Yet in Britain our rivers are still retreating from a post-war onslaught: the lowering of water tables, draining of water meadows, chopping down of trees and destroying wildlife habitats. This book reasserts the timeless importance of rivers to our environment, to the poetic imagination, and indeed to life itself.
This is not an environmental book, even though it is concerned with the environment. It is not a book to save the world, even though the world is clearly in trouble. Ultimately, Time's Up! is a book about survival; about ensuring that every individual human has the means to save herself or himself from the global crisis that is unfolding. People know that the climate is changing, that species are being removed from the Earth at a rapidly increasing rate, that entire ecosystems are becoming shadows of their former richness; they know, but they do not understand. The global environmental crisis is closing in on humanity from all directions, yet the crisis barely registers on this culture's list of problems. As we stand, humanity is doomed to a collapse that will leave only a few nomads, and a toxic, barely survivable Earth in its wake. So why is nothing being done beyond changing light bulbs, recycling and buying organic food? It's certainly not for a lack of good reasons. Humans have no motivation stronger than survival, yet the culture that dominates "the culture we call Industrial Civilization" has created a set of priorities that value financial wealth, the possession of superfluous goods and short, cheap thrills, above that most basic need. In short, we are prepared to die in order to live a life that is killing us. Time's Up! is all about changing this. It describes what our actions are doing to the very things on Earth that we depend on for survival, at scales that we rarely contemplate. It arms us with the tools to free us from the culture that has blinded us for centuries, and which will allow us to live lives that will give the Earth, and ourselves, a future. Time's Up! proposes something radical, fundamental and frightening; something longterm, exhilarating and absolutely necessary; something totally uncivilized.
