Hackable Animal

Collisions in poetry with Ian Ramsey

The forces in our lives are constantly colliding—sometimes in ways that work out well and sometimes in ways that don’t. This interview series is an exploration of what it can look like to work with the collisions, rather than against them. By digging into how humans and nature interact– from our relationships with other humans, to those with our non-human neighbors, to our relationship with ourselves to our relationship with the landbase–we can uncover how to best step fully into our role in the story of the world.

Welcome to another installment of the Ordinary Collisions interview series! Today’s guest is Ian Ramsey.

Ian is a writer, educator, and wilderness athlete based in Maine, where he directs the Kauffmann Program for Environmental Writing and Wilderness Exploration. His book of poems, Hackable Animal, is forthcoming in April from Homebound Publications, where it was a finalist for the Prism Prize for Climate Literature. Ian’s work has appeared in Terrain.org, High Desert Journal, and many other publications. He frequently leads expeditions and collaborates with climate scientists around North America and on other continents. In addition to teaching environmental topics, Ian teaches brain science, music, and entrepreneurship for creatives, and is a founding board member of a non-profit that teaches teens to manage anxiety and emotions.

Heidi: Ian, Thanks for being here with us today. To start, I always ask the same question: What are two forces that are colliding in your life right now (or that have in the not too distant past)?

Ian: I’m really feeling the collision of the old systems that we’ve had since, say 1945, with the rapidly emerging 21st century. Where I notice that most on a day-to-day basis is in my work as an educator, teaching high school students. I’m wrestling with the status quo of an older, ossified system that, because of inertia, is not quite up to the task of preparing young people for the world that they’re entering. While there are certainly perennial human values that will always hold true, a world of quantum computing, AI, digitization, climate change, extinction….all of that demands new systems and new ways of functioning. I’m trying to help create those new options, through storytelling and writing, connecting like minded souls, non-profit work, and creative entrepreneurship. I see poetry as a uniquely human spiritual technology that has the power to turn the wheel, maybe better than anything. I think we might be on the edge of a golden era for poetry, where it stops being merely an academic subject and returns to meaning something to a wider audience.

Heidi: I like the sound of being on the edge of a golden era for poetry. What a great place to be, even in the midst all of the messiness that comes with figuring out how to navigate this time on earth.

How are you navigating the conditions this collision is creating? How does the dissonance created impact your choices?

Ian: I’m navigating this by trying to keep my ear to the ground to understand the emerging world while also staying grounded in the perennial truths of humanity and the earth. That means I keep up to date with tech and global pop culture while still using hand tools and spending time in remote, wild places, often leading others into those places that are repositories of wisdom and perspective. I’m also trying to create systems, stories, and structures that are ready to respond to the opportunity that disruption creates. While the dissonance between the old and new worlds once overwhelmed me, it now motivates me (primarily because I did a great deal of emotional work to find a healthy alignment with it all) to really dig in and work hard. It gives me energy. What other choice do we have? I’m reminded that it was never any different for our ancestors, who have faced immense challenges for hundreds of thousands of years.

Heidi: What a refreshing perspective. I have always loved the idea of being in the conversation, not the fight—which is what you’ve just described. Engaging in dialogue with ourselves and one another to figure out the most viable way forward. That is energizing indeed.

What has this collision taught you about yourself? The world?

Ian: This collision has taught me that I’m stronger and have more agency than I once realized, and that consequences make us pay attention. So this is a moment to pay attention. It has also taught me to ruthlessly focus on what I can impact, and not to waste my precious energy on what I can’t. That said, I believe that we can all impact far more than most of us realize, especially when we do it together. I’m continually inspired by the work that I see people doing, and by the examples of others throughout human history who did amazing things in the face of the impossible. Much of my work as an educator is helping/training others to step into their personal agency and vision, and to see the opportunity-and danger-in this moment.

Heidi: As singer Carrie Newcomer says, “The impossible just takes a little more time.” Stepping into our own agency and encouraging others to do the same is beautiful work.

Now…tell us about a collision you explore in your forthcoming book!

Ian: My book Hackable Animal is all about collisions—environmental, technological, cultural—and how to make sense of the utterly disruptive moment in history that we are living through. In my collection, uncontacted tribes in the Amazon collide with pop culture, wildfires and sea-level rise collide with economics and communities, wild animals collide with humans in the face of collapsing ecosystems. There are tech bros and wooly mammoths and DJ’s and wolves, all rubbing shoulders with each other.

Living through such disruption at such speed and magnitude requires a different set of emotional and spiritual skills than most of us have, and much of the book, which is set all over the world, is about how to make emotional and existential sense of this moment, how to address our interior lives in the midst of such exterior chaos.

Heidi. So, your book is basically the perfect “ordinary collisions” subject. Any book that has tech bros sharing space with wooly mammoths is a must read, in my opinion. I’m looking forward to spending some time with your words!

What else would you like to share about your current projects?

Ian: Aside from Hackable Animal coming out on April 18, I’ll be leading a number of outdoor trips in the coming months—trail running camps in Acadia and Yosemite National Parks, as well as at Mount St Helens. I’ll also be taking my high school environmental writing class to Alaska, as I do every year. I recently started an LLC, and will be using that structure to lead programs for adults and students that help them to explore inner and outer wildernesses. I also have another poetry manuscript–Falling in Love with Mountains is almost done. I have some other writing and translation projects in the pipeline. Beyond that, I’ll be doing everything I can do to stay rooted in the wild earth: sea kayaking, hiking, gardening, foraging, bowhunting, bikepacking, and hopefully running a hundred-mile mountain race in the fall. You can learn more at my website, www.ianramsey.net, and follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

Heidi: Thank you so much, Ian, for sharing with us today, and for your work—we need voices like yours in this era. I’m a big trail runner, too, so I look forward to hearing more about your adventures in the months to come. Maybe we’ll even share trail space one of these years.

Here’s to staying rooted in the wild earth.

Have a collision you’d like to explore in this space? Send me an email at heidi@heidibarr.com.