20
BAMOS
Mar 2020
Article
The Power of One Line Poetry to
Communicate Climate Change
Amanda Anastasi
Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub
Poetry is unique in the way it can hold up a mirror to new and
confronting realities. It is a unifier in its ability to hone in on
a particular moment or place in time. As a proponent of the
power of brevity in poetry and the use of the fewest words
possible, the one‑line poem is a poetic form of fascination
for me. When writing a one‑line poem, I find myself creating
a hook for the reader as I summarise an entire story in a line,
simultaneously inviting the reader to colour the story with
their own interpretation. The aim is to create an image and an
action that stays long after the poem has been read or heard.
Monostich poetry was described by American poet Kimiko
Hahn as “a startling fragment that has its own integrity”.
Drawing on my experience of writing poetry addressing
environmental catastrophe and extinction and also currently
working on a poetry collection set in the year 2042, my
appointment as Resident Poet at the Monash Climate Change
Communication Research Hub (MCCCRH) has allowed me to
focus on the science and impacts of climate change. Among
my completed poems for the Hub to date are 22 monostich
or one‑line poems related to climate change—some set in
the future and others prompted by recent events. The pairing
of poetry and science is not altogether unusual. Both poetry
and science are concerned with observational detail and
unconcerned with opinion. Poetry provides the additional
emotional, human element and a meeting of image and
storytelling in a way that enables emotional relatability.
Following the Australian bushfires, the subject of climate
change has gone from a vague and distant concept to a threat
much closer to our doorsteps and domestic lives. In fact, some
of the futuristic poems I wrote in the early part of 2019 for the
MCCCRH and now being circulated in the form of one‑line
poems, seem more like current day observations and are being
received as such.
I first encountered the monostich poem when reading Ian
McBryde’s Slivers, a poetry collection consisting entirely of
one‑line poems. My first monostich poems began appearing
online from 2016, including in ‘Coolabah 23: The Short Poem
Issue’ by the Australian Studies Centre at the University of
Barcelona. In the issue’s Foreword, its editor, and fellow
Australian poet Peter Bakowski, writes that the short poem is
“wit, wisdom, wordplay and wonder whittled into a dart aimed
to hit the bullseye, which is you, dear reader.”
For the MCCCRH, I wanted to do something new with the
one‑line poem, being acutely aware of the Hub’s strategic
preference for short, accessible messaging. Also aware that
Instagram poetry was gaining popularity, I explored the idea of
creating one‑line poem memes for social media sharing with Dr
David Holmes. Pairing the poems with complementary pictorial
images was aimed at both increasing the approachability
and understanding of each poem and enabling social media
shareability. Presenting the poems in this way was also more
likely to reach current non‑poetry readers.
“The koala that survived cannot find a leaf.”
‘Koala’ is one of the one‑line poems featured on the MCCRH
website (shown below). It immediately confronts the reader
with the reality of the koala’s plight. In a single line, it aims
to capture the vulnerability and multi‑pronged threat to the
koala due to factors such as bushfires and past and current
logging practices, and how human activity is creating multiple
challenges to the species’ survival.
This poem is just one of several one‑line poems currently
featured on the MCCCRH website, the rest of which can be
found at https://www.monash.edu/mcccrh/projects/climate-
change-poetry/one-line-poems. These one‑line poem memes
are sharable via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It is my hope
that those Australians feeling frustrated and saddened by the
impacts and aftermath of the Australian bushfires will find
some articulation in these poems for what has occurred in their
landscapes and homes and to the people and creatures that
inhabit it. The best outcome would be for the poems to engage
people with the reality of climate change and its impacts and
facilitate further conversations about the actions needed going
forward.
One‑line poems accompanied by powerful images taken from the MCCCRH website. Source: Amanda Anastasi