POETRY

Whole-Earth Structure and Plate Tectonics: Figure 14.15 and Figure 14.16

By EMMA WU  |  04 DEC 2024

(The poem is created from cut-and pasted lines as though from a Geology textbook, arranged on a textbook page, with diagrams showing geological processes.) Figure 14.15 (a) (The diagram shows topographical features like mountains forming from convergent plate tectonic movement.) (b) (The diagram shows topographical features like valleys forming from divergent plate tectonic movement.) We had been awake for hours In the dark, It was a valley with fields of cattle and hay framed in serrated ridges he decided to begin his work right there. We moved slowly There was coyote scat at our feet. He asked me to so I fondly dug it out exposed dark sharp-edged mountains of chert spilling them out in my hand. he hoped to accomplish the delicate operation like eggshell silt sliding past another In the shine on the horn of a cow. we suddenly drew together conjoined, He knew simple techniques 'the real stuff' I had to say and then Less delicately more and more In and out like how A vein of ore will fill a fissure. like how two plates, pressing, will rise. Figure 14.16 (The diagram shows four map projections of the Earth stacked vertically. The first shows the continents in their current position, then two phases where they are moving together, and a fourth image with all the continents are combined. Each map projection has degrees of latitude displayed on the right and left sides, from 60 degrees to 30, then 0, negative 30, and negative 60. From top to bottom the labels on each projection read '0 Ma Reconstruction', '50 Ma Reconstruction', '100 Ma Reconstruction', and '150 Ma Reconstruction'.) when we had found what we were looking for waters of the ocean rushed in and left us suspended left us awash in the middle of the immensity of time. Heaven knew exactly. We were filmed in our own grease. A handsome mess faulted open filled with a delirium We could have feathers We stood separate but in the way that a single line will appear to be double in inebriate vision. (The bottom of the page has a page number and title, reading '358 Whole-Earth Structure and Plate Tectonics'.)

(Please click on the image and use the zoom function to read the poem. A transcript is available in the ALT text.)

The geologic figures are sourced from the textbook, Earth Structure: An Introduction to Structural Geology and Tectonics by Ben A. van der Pluijm and Stephen Marshak (1955). The found text is sourced from Annals of the Former World by John Mcphee (1998).

Emma Wu (she/they) is a writer and activist originally from Houston, Texas. They hold an MFA in Fiction from Rutgers University-Camden. Their work has been published in Gulf Coast, New Delta Review, Blue Mesa Review, and elsewhere. They have participated in writing residencies, such as Wildacres Artist Residency, Art Farm Nebraska, and Soaring Gardens Artists Retreat, and were shortlisted for the DISQUIET 2024 Literary Prize in Fiction. Currently residing in Philadelphia, Emma is a Post-Graduate Research Faculty Fellow in the English Department at George Washington University where they teach at the intersection of digital storytelling and carceral justice.

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