Here’s a call from my colleague Kristian Evans from the magazine we founded together and edit with Taz Rahman, Siân Melangell Dafydd, and Glyn Edwards.
Hello to our readers! For issue 3, MODRON magazine is opening for its first poetry submission period from August 25th – September 15th 2023. This year, National Poetry Day is on the theme of refuge, and we are particularly looking for submissions on refuge and the environment. Please note however, that submissions are not limited to the theme. If you have work that you think would be suitable for Modron we encourage you to send it.
In a time of ecological emergency, what does refuge mean? Is it even possible? There are many layers to the theme of refuge, and multiple readings of how the word can be understood. Here are just a few ideas, but there of course are many more ways of interpreting the theme.
With wildfires, rising sea-levels, resource scarcity, war, and eco-system collapse, displacement of populations becomes inevitable. There is predicted to be huge disruption to human populations, with many millions of people becoming “climate refugees”. UN Secretary General António Guterres points out that already, many people are being forced to move by environmental factors:
“Climate change [is] now found to be the key factor accelerating all other drivers of forced displacement. Most of the people affected will remain in their own countries. They will be internally displaced. But if they cross a border, they will not be considered refugees. These persons are not truly migrants, in the sense that they did not move voluntarily.”
In addition, in the West, migrants often are greeted by an unsympathetic and “hostile environment”, which downplays the West’s role in ecological catastrophe. The nonprofit Climate Refugees emphasizes that “climate change disproportionately impacts the most impoverished, marginalized, discriminated and disenfranchised people in our world who played very little role in contributing to the problem in the first place, and will pay a heavier, disproportionate price that challenges the enjoyment of human rights of huge populations.”
We are also interested in poems that tackle the possibility of emotional refuge in a time of alarm. Seeking and finding a place of refuge can be necessary to protect our mental health. However, taken too far, it can become escapism, seeking sanctuary in the many consumerist distractions that our culture offers us. Are people disengaging and disappearing into online bubbles and echo chambers? How do we avoid despair without ignoring the facts of the ecological crisis? What can act as a bulwark against despair? Can we draw strength from faith and spirituality? From community? From campaigning, organizing and protesting?
Animals, birds and insects also seek refuge. Plants also move into new habitats as ecosystems change. Species movement is dictated by the changing climate, habitat destruction, and ecosystem collapse. The praying mantis, for example, has been traveling north from France to the Channel Islands and as far as Dorset, as warmer winter temperatures make the UK a viable habitat. We might also consider what is called “shifting baseline syndrome,” whereby the loss of richness and abundance in the natural world of previous generations is not recognized by present generations, who accept a degraded environment as normal. With this shifting perception, it can be hard to recognize the extent of what we have already lost.
MODRON is open to writers from all backgrounds. We do encourage submissions from writers who have been marginalized traditionally in publishing, for example people of the global majority, LGBTQIA+ writers, disabled writers, neurodiverse writers, writers who experience economic stress, and those from immigrant backgrounds.
· Please send up to six poems in MS Word with a 50-word bio. We close at 12 midnight on Friday September 15th.
· Please send submissions to modronsubmissions@gmail.com. Do not send to our regular email address.
If you are looking for examples of poetry that we enjoy, please see our previous two issues: one and two. Please also see this article on the National Poetry website which highlights previous work published on the theme of refuge.
Finally, please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky Social.
You can also keep in touch with us by signing up to our mailing list.
Zoë Brigley 
You must be logged in to post a comment.