British ecopoet, Helen Moore, has kindly shared her salmon inspired poem ‘Migration Story’ with us for our Save Our Salmon appeal.
Actor and Atlantic Salmon Trust Ambassador, Jim Murray, introduces Helen and her riverside rendition of the poem.
Helen not only is a poet but also an artist and a published writer with three ecopoetry collections.
Her connection with nature goes right back to childhood, she explains, and even to her paternal ancestors, who were farmers in East Anglia. Helen says,
“In adolescence, my passion went underground when I became swept up by consumer-culture, as many teens are. It re-emerged years later when I learnt how to forage for wild foods, and I subsequently taught myself to identify and write about local flora and fauna in rural Somerset. My interest in salmon was piqued by seeing them leaping up waterfalls in a Scottish Highland river.
“I’ve felt their call ever since.”
She continues, explaining what sets ecopoetry apart from mainstream,
“For me, ecopoetry is informed by ecology and awareness of the intersecting social and ecological problems we face. I seek to encourage others to explore a deeper sense of identity, with an understanding of ourselves as members of the wider multi-species communities of our planet-home.
“Ultimately, I want to see ecopoetry become redundant – for it to herald a future where ‘ecopoetry’ is simply ‘poetry’ again.”
Helen’s poem, ‘Migration Story’ is the second section from her landscape ecopoem sequence 'Dorset Waterbodies, a Common / Weal', which was made with the support of Arts Council England funding over the course of 2020/21 for Cape Farewell's RiverRun project. The series was informed by engagement with scientists, and particularly focussing on the salmon that spawn upriver in the chalk streams.
Helen says that,
“These linked texts voice the impacts of pollution and the climate crisis on the more-than-human world, and draw on my sense of people's cooperative nature to inspire a collective response.”
You can download the poem here >
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