Prodigal Flowers   (Ten Ecopoems)

          Candlestick Press: 5 June 2026   ISBN: 978-1-913627-79-9;   £ 6.95    (pamphlet)

To ORDER via Candlestick click here: or contact Mario at mmpetrucci@hotmail.com   * from   a   to   a or Getting Nowhere   finding the freeway to myself i put my foot down to my own motive floorboards asking the rear -view what to do next it said brother the faster you eat me up the more you leave behind – you’ll see more of me slower so why not pull over ’cause this road is going backwards and your incessant tyres are speeding up the world   * Ecology   Last night in thinning dusk I cut rosemary – one thick sprig I sank in a cup of cold water. This morning in windowed sun tiny bubbles lined the cup’s warm insides – those buds so delicately sheathed all along the leaning stalk kept opening their pale blue – flickering tiny plumes down the length like lit gas though some green-dark needles already had begun to twist and blacken. That’s how we seem (how I am) upon this planet: one shoot whose blooms so delicately cupped for now keep on opening even as we separate from the root.   * plutonium   now that wind has confused itself with water we at last breathe you – each caviar cluster out seeking its lung – your every germ jiggling & sliming with canker – while in saucers of coral our hothouse fungi continue – rise & fan their white gills to spore you – till even amoebae in basalt oceans frisk you & take you in whole – wobbling with energy the way the jowls of a diner might try to subdue the peppercorn molars alight on – o see how we smear ourselves in elements one on another as a child would in ochre – how urgent we are to extend that table none may sit at – till brain-dust carries on dry surf on fire to complete this grey- blue circle of planet with one winking star & we are that grit crackling the seam of your pocket                       (c) Mario Petrucci 2026 *

... Launched on World Environment Day 2026 ... These poems by Ecopoet and environmentalist Mario Petrucci offer a series of remarkable encounters with the natural world.   They question and warn, while finding wonder and beauty amid the sobering realities of climate change.   The flowers may seem “prodigal” but it’s their vulnerability that sharpens the poet’s attention.   We look through both ends of the telescope to view the intricate lives of plants and insects as vividly as the abstract grandeur of the cosmos.   Sometimes the two come together; here, rare seeds are akin to stars:     “Each tiny face has its look:       the black-shiny.   The varnishy-brown.       The specks too – it’s like telling stars       apart, rolling them thumb to palm.”                          from ‘Seedwoman’ The vigour of Petrucci’s language shows us the world as a place that is intensely, though precariously, alive.   He is a scientist as well as a poet, and these heady encounters are energised by that juxtaposition. * “A prolific and powerful poet, known for his themed collections that explore love and loss, scientific consciousness, the natural world…”   Poetry International “Petrucci is one of the very few current British poets to have had a scientific training… he can be seen as akin to European scientist-writers such as Miroslav Holub and Primo Levi.”   British Council “Compelling visions that challenge the way we relate to our environment.”   British Council “Mario’s poems pull no punches – they will intrigue, delight, terrify and provoke at every level of emotion, learning and action.”   The Poetry Society (World Environment Day)   Mario Petrucci is an early founder and leading proponent of Ecopoetry.   Performer, academic, environmentalist and PhD physicist, as well as translator, educator and broadcaster, his many awards include the Arvon Prize, Bridport Prize, Irish Times Perpetual Trophy, and London Writers Competition (four times).   Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl (Enitharmon) was hailed as “heartfelt, ambitious and alive” by The Daily Telegraph and “poetry on a geological scale” by Verse (USA).   Petrucci’s sustained mediations between ecology and poetry – particularly via the UN – galvanise the role of the arts in environmental discourse.   In 2026, Petrucci was appointed Ecopoetry Network Coordinator for the Planetary Arts Movement by the World Academy of Art and Science.   << for Candlestick's Q & A with Mario on Prodigal Flowers and Ecopoetry, click HERE >>   * * *   VIDEO excerpt from Prodigal Flowers (Ten Ecopoems) ....   (not for redistribution)   * * * Lion's Tooth - a message from nature: love-loss in the many eyes of the common, yet exquisite, dandelion... ****************************************************************************************************************************************** Reviews of Prodigal Flowers (Ten Ecopoems)...   “I read it in one go...”   Reader comment.   “The poems are...”   Acumen 107 (Andrew Geary; September 2023).

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copyright mario petrucci 2026