The Affiliate:

An  Ecology of Biophilic Values

by Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb

for Stephen R. Kellert

i

 

We are but planetary dreams, puzzles

of cells completed, yet unsolved,

complexes of tendencies

defined by organic associations

in Nature. Culture me not

to be engineered to desire

lifeless essentials

such that life itself no longer inspires

Earth-given, biophilia-driven values.

 

 

AFFECTIVE

 

ii

 

My affiliate first evokes in me

its pattern in my fear; I dare

not near what used to be

a threat-filled thing

innate to mammalian memory. 

To hate, to flee, to give it space,

the presence is still awesome,

yet strangely laced

with a sense of the familiar.

 

iii

 

Within my cells it shares a time

when natural needs were met,

memory, history, chance—

the savannah dance

that pressured our design,

pulling place into neural spaces

I refer to as my mind, inclined

to find within this living form

an object of projected beauty.

 

iv

 

This different type of kin directs

my feelings of strong affection,

reflecting my need to interact

enhancing group connection. Inspired

to share the receiver of my care

with my community, my social soul

is linked by nature/culture bonds,

from which to fashion

a model for civic compassion.

 

 

COGNITIVE

 

v

 

I yearn to visit a similar creature

in some exquisite feature of the wild,

for a human soul is styled to face

an immensity of freedom in a place

of exploration, of restoration, where

the experiential sense of self

can return to health and balance

in the bounty of Earth's wealth,

within which each being has its role.

 

vi

 

How does this other make sense

to me?  What does its presence mean?

Surely it must represent more

than its common form when free.

I want to make it part of me,

though we are independent lives,

so in my mind the creature thrives,

is prone to fly and crawl and deeply roam

within the symbols of this poem.
 

 vii

 

To identify this lifeform,

to classify its kind could yield

knowledge of design and function,

further, in conjunction with curiosity,

inspiration to trace the place

exactly of the thing in land or space

or time or, even more abstractly,

the evolution of its biosemiotic realm

as relative to mine.  

 

 

EVALUATIVE

 

viii

 

I remember now—almost—

the beast, the way it moved, the nature

of its shape, the caution in my catching it,

and pride when casting it aside,

but, even stranger, a sense

of diminished danger

with each successive mastery

in the distance of my ancestry,

and, more so, the desire to make it mine.

 

ix

 

I will choose the use it offers, depending

on my needs, unless, of course, whims tend

to be expressed, the affiliation will end

in sustenance or medicine or in manipulation

of its genes; it seems I can gain 

profits by containing for entertainment

this captive, adaptive soul,

but regardless of the way it serves,

best to keep this resource whole.

 

x

 

Call me biocentric, ecocentric,

some will insist, but my spirit

is constricted, my conscience isn't clear,

for, with this other will-to-live,

who am I to interfere? The being

should be back in the land

where it does belong; thus, my affiliate

I must release if I want my biophilic soul

again to be at peace.