“If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, as Shelley once wrote, then Jeff Poniewaz would have been the spokesman for their local caucus.”
That’s the first sentence of this tribute in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper to Wisconsin poet Jeff Poniewaz, a fierce fighter for the environment and poetry’s place in it.
Poniewaz, who died on Dec. 13, organized an Earth Day Poetry Celebration in 1988, according to this article. That launched the Earth Poets & Musicians group, which performs at annual Earth Day celebrations and raises funds for ecological organizations.
His many other contributions to the world of poetry and to efforts to counter pollution and ecological destruction is included in this tribute.