Human Bloom

Humans can claim to be successful. We need only measure ourselves on criteria that would be respected by other species, if they could talk, such as our vast populations and our dominance over other forms of life. But in these very metrics are the beginnings of our downfall. There are too many of us, taking too much, to be able to carry on indefinitely. In microcosm, the same fate awaits blooms of algae, those ugly masses we see floating in lakes or ocean bays. These tiny plants multiply quickly to exploit an accidental abundance of nutrients, depriving animals of oxygen and blocking light from other plants. When the bonanza is over, the algae die.

The flowering of our species is like an algal bloom, but we are not like algae. We can clearly see our impact on nature and have the means to arrest our demise, if only we had the will. This selection of sonnets includes the best from The Thailand Sonnets and Sonnets of Innocence and Experience, with the addition of some more recent poems.