On the Ecopoetics of Temporal Discernment

Abstract

In this short article, I explore the ways in which literary studies, and in particular, the study of ecopoetry and ecopoetics, can contribute to current engagements with the temporal horizon of ‘deep’, geological, time. Drawing on the concept of ‘temporal discernment’ advanced by environmental philosopher, James Hatley, I argue for the cultivation of an appreciation for plural temporalities (including the historical, ethical, immemorial, creaturely, contemplative and prophetic, alongside the geological and evolutionary), the lineaments of which I trace here in Diane Pacitti’s poetry collection, Dark Angelic Mills centred around the multi-layered history of the post-industrial, multi-cultural Cathedral town of Bradford in England.