High-school poet Banerjee’s second collection, following In Solitude: Thoughts And Feelings Of An Eleven-Year-Old During The Coronavirus Pandemic offers a frank survey of climate disaster in thirty bleak yet hope-tinged poems that seek to inspire environmental activism and honor the earth and its creatures. The opening chapters explore the poet’s individual experience of nature in Georgia, calling attention to the seasons, weather patterns, and the small, brilliant wonders of all earth’s faces: “The calla lilies lash their tongue out, heads high, // and the bluebells hand low, being shy. // The lavender fills hills with its violet hue, // and daily, the morning glory blooms anew.” However, Banerjee’s poems dig beyond the floral; they’ve also been crafted to fight against overconsumption of the Earth’s resources.

Banerjee addresses the planet’s landscape of climate horrors, from the extinction of the dodo bird to the animal cruelty required to make foie gras to plastic waste in the ocean. “What will we do when we run out of land // and all that remains is plastic and concrete?” the poet asks in the haunting “The Loss of Use and Toss.” Though Harmony is often despairing, Banerjee also laces the collection with visions for a better future. “Toccoa and Train” creates a parallel between the female-imagined Toccoa river and the male-imagined train running alongside it, each carrying their burdens and forming a partnership, with the train using the river for “her inspiration.” Together “they both ran and ran and ran, for every generation.”

This recontextualization has power. Banerjee imagines a world where the train, once the very emblem of the industrial age, and the river are not opposing forces, but instead part of a flowing harmony. As a love letter and call to action for the earth, Banerjee’s saga is a worthy addition to the genre of climate-change activism poetry by young authors.

Cover: B+ | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: B Editing: B+ | Marketing copy: A