Description

I'D RATHER BE LIGHTNING is a love song to the earth, celebrating what we stand to lose.

These poems are "throwing a tantrum" about the climate crisis, written by a "child / of imperialism whining about freedom / from the bondage of stuff." What do you get when you combine capitalism, environmentalism, ecology, globalization, fascism, economic crisis, and global pandemic? Nancy Lyn e Woo transmutes anxiety into dynamic and playful poems, writing into the absurdity of the global crises facing humanity with a soft wit, enduring hope, and deep love for the more-than-human world. Eco-feminism moving at lightspeed, I'D RATHER BE LIGHTNING captures a Millennial's despair over environmental destruction with bolts of humor, compassion, and formal experimentation.

"Nancy Woo's I'D RATHER BE LIGHTNING is a necessary invocation. It's a handbook, spellbook, and remembered lucid dream to guide us in and through these times. Clear-eyed about the climate crisis while brimming with love for humans and more-than-humans, this debut collection is a powerful force of language and hope."--Tamiko Beyer

"I read the collection with care, afraid I'd miss a single gem about our planetary crisis, along with Woo's wise and kind eye towards us flawed humans ('Everyone you disagree with//is right in some way'), and the joie de vivre and optimism she offers us, alongside the great existential dread so beautifully depicted, in the playfulness of her poems."--Elizabeth J. Coleman

"Nancy Lyn e Woo's I'D RATHER BE LIGHTNING is a riotous and candid collection of ecopoems that traverse landscapes and species to tell the story of our changing world. She reports 'Earth's problems are not getting/ any smaller.' While hope for humanity is ever-present in her work, Woo is in search of the 'eye of life' and isn't afraid to examine the irreparable damage to the Earth and its non-human inhabitants. Using bold language and body-level perceptions, Woo frankly reminds us, 'Just because you want to survive doesn't mean you will.'"--Jessica Gigot

Poetry. Nature.