ampamp10ampamp10To The Last Be Human collects fourampamp10extraordinary poetry booksSea Change Place Fast and Runawayampamp8212byampamp10Pulitzer Prize winner Jorie Graham.ampamp10ampamp10From the introduction by Robert Macfarlane ampamp10ampamp10The earliest of the poems in this tetralogy were written atampamp10373 parts per million of atmospheric CO2 and the most recent at 414 parts perampamp10million that is to say in the old calendar 2002 and 2020 respectively. Theampamp10body of work gathered here stands as an extraordinary lyric record of thoseampamp10eighteen calamitous years a glittering teeming Anthropocene journal writtenampamp10from within the New Climatic Regime as Bruno Latour names the present rifeampamp10with hope and raw with loss lush and sparse hard to parse and hugely powerfulampamp10to experience ampamp8230 Grahams poems are turned to face our planetampamp8217s deeptimeampamp10future and their shadows are cast by the long light of the willhavebeen. Butampamp10they are made of more durable materials than granite and concrete they areampamp10very far from passive and their tasks are of record as well as warning toampamp10preserve what it has felt like to be a human in these accelerated years whenampamp10ampamp8216the future takes shape too quicklyampamp8217 when we are entering ampamp8216a time beyondampamp10belief.ampamp8217 They know these poems and what they tell is precise to their formampamp8230.ampamp10Sometimes they are made of ragged hurting hurtling and bodyfleeingampamp10language other times they celebrate the sheer shocking heartstopping giftampamp10of the given world seeing light tree sea skin and star as a ampamp8216whirling robeampamp10humming with firstnessampamp8217 there to ampamp8216greet you if you eyeup.ampamp8217 ampamp10ampamp10I know not to mistake the pleasures of this poetry forampamp10presentist consolation the situation has moved far beyond that ampamp8216Wind would beampamp10nice but itampamp8217s only us shaking.ampamp8