Poetry Unbound

Craig Santos Perez — Rings of Fire

Dec 13, 2021
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ANECDOTE

Birthday Party as a Climate Story

  • Craig Santos Perez recounts his daughter’s first birthday party during the hottest April in history while her fever spikes.
  • He juxtaposes that intimate family scene with global climate events to make the personal feel planetary.
INSIGHT

Love Reframes Environmental Ethics

  • The poem uses the parent’s love to refract the whole world: his daughter is the world and the world is his daughter.
  • This lens asks readers to care for the planet with the same urgency we care for a child.
INSIGHT

Pivot From Child Care To Planet Care

  • The poem pivots from a child’s medical crisis to treating the earth as if it were fighting infection from rising temperatures.
  • That pivot connects private care and public responsibility, exposing denial and the need for action.
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