On Being Called by Plants

This article brings the emerging ecohumanistic idea of ‘phytopoetics’ into dialogue with the established scientific concept of the ‘phytosphere’ to understand poetry concerning human-flora interdependencies. Developing a phytospheric framework, I analyse poetry of the root-soil interface (rhizosphere), leaves (phyllosphere) and plants’ interior domain (endosphere). Countering a view of flora as passive, phytospherically contoured poetry foregrounds the agencies of plants within their multifaceted spheres of relation. I ground the article’s theoretical assertions in an examination of the rhizospheric poetics of Louise Glück and Brenda Hillman; phyllosperic poetics of Ted Hughes and Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner; and endospheric poetics of Michael McClure and the Microcosms project. In addition to its ecological function, the phytosphere is a nexus of language propagation and catalyst of identification with vegetal life. Shaped by phytospheric delineations, contemporary phytopoems particularise plants, liberating vegetal life from the backdrop of consciousness and enabling the human to be called by plants in their own voices.