Endlings

Endlings takes us across continents and through the long expanse of aeons to give voice to the dead. In poems that are lyrical, exact, and deeply melancholic, Joanna Lilley demands audience for the final moments of animal extinction. From the zebra-horse quagga and chiding dodo, to the giant woolly mammoth and delicate Xerces Blue Butterfly, the haunting, urgent words of these “endlings” cut to the bone to expose the brutality of Nature and the devastating repercussions of human ignorance and intent, while giving hope that our humanity will help save what remains.

AUTHOR

Joanna Lilley

Since emigrating from the UK in 2006, Joanna Lilley has lived in Whitehorse, Yukon. Her poems and stories have been published in Canada and the UK in journals including The Malahat Review, Grain and The Fiddlehead. This is her first collection of poetry.

Reviews

We are so disconnected from nature we think it’s the economy that makes our lifestyles and lives possible. In fact it’s the complex web of nature within which we are inextricably linked and on which we are utterly dependent.
When a species disappears, that complex web of life loses resilience and productivity. Endlings is a reminder of what we have lost within human memory. It’s a frightening reminder that Nature is our Mother and source of life.
–David Suzuki