April Poetry | Call for Essays and Other Works | The Summit
April 10, 2019 Kosmos Community News
Dear Reader,
I was interviewed today by an independent weekly newspaper in operation since 1894! Here is an excerpt from The Swarthmorean:
What is your role as Convener of the upcoming Kosmos Climate, Consciousness, and Community Summit in Media, Pennsylvania?
We all know, deep in our heart, that the Earth is in trouble, but we don’t know what we can do about it. The problems seem too big. That is why we come together – to learn and find inspiration. As Convener, I am just a conduit for the wisdom and spirit of service that already exists here in Swarthmore/Media and in our greater Kosmos community.
It can be difficult to focus on climate effects we might not confront for 10, 20, even 30 years. And yet we can see many of these effects beginning to arise: severe weather events, water shortages, refugee crises, species loss, to name a few. We humans have been given special gifts for a special task – to be stewards of our precious planet. We have not done our best in this regard. Now we will be 
remembered for what we did or failed to do at this critical time.
We do not have to do this work alone. Gatherings like the Climate Summit can give us a lot of encouragement, ideas and hope. This is joyful work we can undertake together, in harmony with all Life.
Full-Summit and Day-passes are still available at the reduced rate, here.
April Gallery of Poets | A New Kosmos Feature
Thanks to our wonderful poetry editor, Carolyn Martin, and our prolific community of poets, we are happy to offer a new Kosmos feature. From time to time we will offer a collection of poems, curated by Carolyn, that have captured our imagination. Read our April Gallery of Poets below. Kosmos Quarterly has a growing poetry section too, also thanks to Carolyn’s expert sensibilities.
Carolyn’s poems and book reviews have appeared in publications throughout North America and the UK including “Stirring,” “CALYX,” “Persimmon Tree,” “How Higher Education Feels,” and “Antiphon.” Her third collection, Thin Places, was published by Kelsay Books in 2017 and her fourth, A Penchant for Masquerades, is newly minted in 2019 by Unsolicited Press.
Call For Essays and Other Works | All My Relations
The Lakota phrase, Mitakuye Oyasin means All My Relations. Our Kosmos Quarterly Summer theme is focused on our relationships with animals, plants and minerals – our living Earth and all beings. This is a continuation of our recent edition, Rising Earth Awareness, with a closer focus on factory farming, fossil fuel extraction, animal exploitation, species loss, and forests, oceans and wild places.
Animals, plants and minerals are members of the planetary family, in distress. What are the rights of Nature, and how do we cope with the grief, fear and anger about extinctions, ecosystem destruction, and climate change?
We invite you to submit an essay up to 1000 words, a poem, or other artwork, in response to any of these prompts or what All My Relations means to you. We will choose several works to publish in our Quarterly and on our website.
Deadline: May 20, 2019 | Use our Submission Form for written works. For all other media, contact info@kosmosjournal.org directly, with the subject line: Submission Inquiry. Before you submit, please take a look at our guidelines.
Prayers for Polly Higgins
Beloved by our community, Polly Higgins is a Scottish advocate and expert in ecocide. She presented to the United Nations Law Commission a proposal for ecocide to be recognized as an international crime. Higgins is also the author of Eradicating Ecocide and creator of the first non-commercial trust fund for Earth Protectors.
As many of you know, Polly received the unimaginable diagnosis of having only weeks to live. At this time, Polly’s focus is on life and her global community is rallying around her with prayerful offerings every evening at 6pm UK time. Please tune in energetically, wherever you are to support Polly’s wellness. At Kosmos Quarterly, it is our intention to dedicate our Summer edition to her continuing work on behalf of the Earth.
April poetry selections, gathered by our poetry editor, Carolyn Martin.
By Femke Wijdekop
Ecologically conscious lawyers are innovating solutions to counter the exploitation of nature—solutions that also question the outdated economic growth imperative and anthropocentric bias of our legal system. Among these solutions are climate cases that focus on intergenerational justice and planetary stewardship, the movement to criminalize ecosystem destruction—ecocide—and initiatives to acknowledge the rights of nature.