Ensemble: Foulden Maar
A longpoem response to the mining at Foulden Maar, generated at a workshop led by writers Iona Winter and Kirstie McKinnon and produced by Kate Dawson and Sophie Briggs on behalf of the Mining for Meaning: the Geoethics of Extracted Industries project. The workshop occured in Middlemarch, Otago in October 2022.
Audio performance by Claire Lacey and Dane Oates
Editor’s Note: This poem is best viewed on a desktop browser.
Ensemble: Foulden Maar
Dramatis personae:
Mined Text — the reportage
The Soil — as described
The Poet — always puts themselves into the poem
The Fossil Beetle — found at Foulden Maar
The Diagram — found in the New Zealand Listener
The Corporate Entity — our villain
The Underfunded Locals — the chorus
Fossil: Foulden Maar
The diatoms sank to the bottom, forming ‘a thick blanket
of fine-grained siliceous ooze that over time built up
to become diatomite’
mined for the manufacture of cement
filtration systems
insulation
pet litter
pesticide
fertilizer
to fertilize
palm oil plantations1
The soil knows the dirt.
We hold. We join. We weight.
We make firm. We press.
We accrete. We transform.
We transform. We age.
We erode. We dampen.
We dry. We transform.
We accumulate. We concentrate.
We transform. We hold. We
wait. We bide. We embrace.
We preserve. We persevere.
We perseverate. We possess.
We process. We transform.
We archive. We glean. We bibliographize.
We memorialize. We maintain.
This body. Your body. We dirt. We dust.
We fertilize. We show our work.
We time. We era. We eon. We deadline.
We extend. We crater. We crumble.
We cusp. We catch. We cache. We funnel.
We web. We wrap. We warp. We weft.
We pressure. We clasp. We crush. We crunch.
We settle. We muse. We museum. We mummify.
We relic. We relish. We relinquish. We recognize you
would not recognize. We fossil. We fossick. We filter.
We feed. We feel fleeting. We hold time. We wear your names provisionally.
We mine mortality. We curate the things that hold shape.
The rest becomes us.
I press my thumb between blades of grass. The soil presses
back.
Fossil: Beetle
to excavate what cannot be replaced
unexpected turquoise cerebrum, fissured
soft, fossiled tough
grey matter, white matter
dura, intestine, exoskeletal
pressure
to uncover — discover — lay bare
to uncover — extract — deplete
the smell of brushed rock prised on a dry day
touch the dunes of the lobes
unfaithful symmetry
the beetle like no other
like every other
layers these eons their scene
my scene: post-viral infection new inhaler squidgy brain
under the sun first of spring laying in grass
moisture speckling
notebook
spots speckling vision calcification of thought does tau harden my brain
it bugs me
I bug out
bug off
Fossils from the site also include the world’s oldest known galaxiid fish and the first freshwater eel found in the Southern Hemisphere. Foulden is especially valuable for the amount of soft tissue preserved in the diatomite, including the remnants of fish eyes and skin, and insect antennae and wing patterns.2
like beetle
I hope to leave a trace
in strata
in silt
in space
on this page
it’s
Sunday
in damp grass and dandelions: I could be back in Ontario
at school during recess I scratched around a large stone to uncover shells and imprints of creatures I couldn’t name the whole area had once been submerged and now our snobby city by the lake holds treasures for those who mind the spot next to the baseball diamond when the teachers finally discovered the hole after weeks of work I could stand in it up to my knees the stone held firm and deeper still and I was made to fill it in
diagram: Foulden Maar
in which the poet tries to read a diagram demonstrating Foulden Maar’s deposits
in this cone of earth
I see the lenticulostriate artery particularly prone to stroke
heart to brain flow movement of
liquid through bodies of
soil
depositing
shards
we read in relation to our kenning through kenning we read kinship
th
is layer
formerly ooze
holds pattern: wings, scale
The Corporate Entity acquires the Foulden Maar mine
the diatomite needed as an ingredient for fertilizer to feed
palm oil plantations in Malaysia
diatomite is not rare
Goldman Sachs produces an investment report:
the locals are not well funded
diatomite is not rare
but the fossils of Foulden Maar are
The Corporate Entity plans an open pit mine proposes to extract for thirty years
the site made dust by trucks Foulden Maar diatomite trademarked
Black Pearl
the locals, underfunded
quack quibble quip rail rally ramble rant rasp rave rebuff rebuke repartee retreat retort revile revel reveal ridicule roister scoff scold scorn scream screech seethe:
stop. slow. let us dig to understand
we know this place is our history we arrived long after
the ooze blanketed the pressure settled we peopled
and unbirded this place
unbushed with fire and field
we have learned what we cannot take back
and this is it
we won’t
settle
sediment
sentiment
the mine rumbled The Corporate Entity: insolvent the future of the site
muddied
what does publishing do?
what do we do?
I am writing a poem.
to treat mountains and bedrock differently is to misunderstand
(elsewhere: the tar sands foot the bill. up north the fires that create hellscape skies in Calgary, apocalyptic haze that tastes of burnt bacon, that cancels summer. the land burns. human dis
ruption rupture eruption the places we devastate
because they can’t afford to say no
or they say no and
land
is land
is land
the dirt presses me up to the sky
surrender is the deepest
place
I wear my circadian camouflage
swifts swit swit over field
scouting for beetles
churned
in ploughing
digestion: fossilization on the inside
matter begets matter begets bedrock begets mountaintop
the swift will not fossilize, eaten
in turn by a ginger tabby
all names are provisional. all provisions are personal. all persons are transitional.
all architecture a pleading from the past.
dura, intestine exoskeletal
grey matter, white matter
soft architecture of soil
unexpected orange cerebrum, fissured
turquoise
to excavate what cannot be replaced
Wonderful Earth-Song,-cycle, Claire,! Thank you so much for the depth of your vision here.
(The watercolor accompanying Claire’s poem will be the cover-image of
Ancestors, poems/prose poetry responsding to a Dream question
from my mixed Native (Tsalagi) and European Abuelas/ Grandmothers)
I loved the way the poem was arranged on the page, and when I heard the overlapping voices in the audio, it was just perfect. Such a lovely and complex poem.
Beverly Glenn Copeland
This is Life-grieving and celebration music that feels like it
belongs here . Am listening now…