In Case You're Wondering Why The Green Skeptic Hasn't Posted in Some Time...

As the season turns from summer to fall, it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that I've neglected The Green Skeptic and its readers for too long -- my last post was August 2nd.

But there's good reason! 

In addition to the usual summer vacation (those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram will have seen my tweets from Martha's Vineyard), back to school, and the Jewish holidays, which I've been fortunate enough to enjoy with my fiancee, Samantha, I've been cooking up a few other things -- besides delicious meals.

First, is EY Cleantech's upcoming CEO Retreat in Napa, California, where we'll welcome over 80 cleantech CEOs, corporate, and government leaders  representatives. It's a very exciting event and I've had the pleasure of organizing and managing it for the second straight year. You can read more about it (and read last year's report) HERE.

Second, I've begun work on a new book of nonfiction that pulls together stories of cleantech innovation and my own insights on the sector, which will be of interest to readers of The Green Skeptic. (More on that later, I hope.)

And finally, this fall, the Aldrich Press is publishing my first full-length collection of poetry, FALLOW FIELD. The book consists of 45 poems, representing my best work from the past quarter century, and you can order your signed copy of FALLOW FIELD here:

Here is what others have said about this collection, FALLOW FIELD:

“Scott Edward Anderson’s poems honor the reality that the things of the world – rye grass, fall warblers, ravens, owls, ‘Sargassum drifting/ in a pelagic wave,’ lovers and sourdough bread – speak to and for our innerness. Here the sense of place is not simply a matter of geography, but of feeling one’s way into that sense of becoming that makes one’s path clear. The book’s fourth section is comprised of poems that beautifully embrace the very human need to join the inner and outer, a territory defined, as the poem titles suggest, by ‘Becoming,’ ‘Shapeshifting,’ ‘Cultivating,’ ‘Mapping,’ and ‘Healing.’ Guided since childhood, as the book’s closing long poem relates, by nature’s teaching, Anderson is devoted to finding the words for what it means to dwell mindfully among others on the wounded earth.”

                                                            –Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of Rope: Poems

“I was impressed by Anderson’s engagement with nature — especially the way in which his lyrical lines sketch the profound relationship between humans and their environment.”

                                                             – Jonathan Galassi, author of Left-handed: Poems

For those of you not familiar with my poetry, it is rooted in nature and grounded in what Robert Hass called the “strong central tradition of free verse made out of both romanticism and modernism, split between the impulses of an inward and psychological writing and an outward and realist one, at its best fusing the two.”  (Hass, Introduction to Best American Poetry 2001)

I studied with Hass and with Gary Snyder, along with the late Walter Pavlich, and received some great mentoring and advice from poets Alison Hawthorne Deming, Donald Hall, Colette Inez, and Karen Swenson, as well as wonderful friends and readers.

My poetry is informed by a deep engagement with the natural world, attuned to the smallest details and complexities of nature and our experience of place. Attentiveness and mindfulness are critical to my method of working, both as the poem first evolves and later, through the often rigorous process of revision.

I believe poetry is the most direct language with which to approach our place in the world and reconnect us to nature. By nature, I mean not only the natural world, but also the built environment; not only the processes and causal powers of the physical world, but our immediate experience of the spiritual and the non-human.

For the past twenty five years, I have been building a body of poetry that tries to achieve my goal of writing that is open, approachable, and eminently readable, at the same time that it is intellectual and revels in the joy of language. FALLOW FIELD represents the best of my poetry over that time.

Order your signed copy of FALLOW FIELD below:

Want a Different Lens? Hire a Poet

Poets See Through a Different Lens

Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures posted on Twitter last night that his investment firm was looking for a new partner.

He linked to a blog post in which he wrote they wanted to get "some new perspectives in the Firm to help us look at opportunities through a different lens."

I thought immediately that Roger should hire a poet. Why?

"For one, poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity," as John Coleman, co-author of Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders wrote in the Harvard Business Review blog last November.

Coleman observed, "Harman Industries founder Sidney Harman once told The New York Times, 'I used to tell my senior staff to get me poets as managers. Poets are our original systems thinkers. They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand.'"

Second, poets are -- despite the seeming loneliness of their primary pursuit -- more sociable beings.

Coleman referred to a 2006 study conducted by the Poetry Foundation, claiming the "number one thematic benefit poetry users cited was 'understanding' -- of the world, the self, and others. They were even found to be more sociable than their non-poetry-using counterparts."

Further, poets and poetry readers may have more finely developed "qualitative and creative" skills and "creative judgment," which would enhance the more quantitative skill sets that IA Ventures already possesses among its partners.

Finally, as Coleman noted, referencing Clare Morgan's book What Poetry Brings to Business poets and poetry readers possessed "greater 'self-monitoring' strategies that enhanced the efficacy of their thinking processes.

"These creative capabilities can help executives keep their organizations entrepreneurial, draw imaginative solutions, and navigate disruptive environments where data alone are insufficient to make progress."

In an earlier HBR blog post, Tony Golsby-Smith, an Australian business design and transformation consultant, pointed to four key attributes humanities-focused people such as poets bring to any organization.

These include an ability to understand customer needs, an emphasis on creativity and innovation, communication and presentation skills, and analyzing complexity and ambiguity.

Such individuals tend "to be curious, to ask open-ended questions, see the big picture," Golsby-Smith wrote. "This kind of thinking is just what you need if you are facing a murky future or dealing with tricky, incipient problems."

For building relationships with customers (or Limited Partners, in the case of IA Ventures), Golsby-Smith offered, "you need keen powers of observation and psychology -- the stuff of poets and novelists."

So, to Roger I say, hire a poet for your new partner at IA Ventures. You will get someone with different, yet complementary attributes to those your Firm already has on board.

A poet will certainly be passionate, articulate, and interested in engaging in constructive debate as well as building partnerships with your portfolio companies. 

At least, I know one poet who fits that description.

Robert Frost, Electric Cars, and Poetry

Poet Robert Frost died 50 years ago today, and Poets & Writers magazine offered the challenge of writing a poem using Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" as a model.

Robert Frost

Frost was born in 1874, some time after Robert Anderson (a suspected relation to this author) invented a crude electric carriage in Scotland, and some 39 years after Thomas Davenport of Brandon, Vermont, built his own small-scale electric car. Davenport also invented the first American-built DC electric motor.

Robert Anderson's Electric Carriage, circa 1832

Perhaps because I was working on some electric vehicle materials in my day-job today, I couldn't resist penning this over lunch, with apologies to the poet:

"Stopping by the Roadside on a Snowing Evening"

Whose car this is I think I know;

No keys I need to make it go.

You may not hear me driving by

'Cause electric cars are soft as snow.

My finger on the button here

Will make the engine start and gear

And waken not the woods and lake

--the quietest engine of the year.

I give the foot-pedal a tiny tap

And feel the seat belt on my lap.

The only other sound's the hush

Of lofty wind and goosewing flap.

The road is lively, quick, and steep.

But I have batteries to keep,

And miles to drive before I sleep,

And miles to drive before I sleep.

##

Davenport's Electric Car, 1835

How the Internet Gave Me a Voice: Skepticism and Poetry

Craig Newmark via Paper Camera

Today is Internet Freedom Day and Craig Newmark asks "How does the Internet give you a voice?"

When Craig asks something, I feel compelled to respond. Not because he is the founder of Craigslist or because he posts some awesome photos of birds or because Leonard Cohen is his Rabbi.

Rather, it's because he is a champion of causes like veteran's issues and Internet Freedom. (Well, maybe his bird photos do have a special appeal.)

The Internet gave me a voice --actually two voices. One for my skepticism and another for my poetry.

First, the poetry. It was the late 1990s when I first realized the power of the Internet to give voice to my poetry or, more to the point, gave me an audience.

My poems had recently won the Nebraska Review Award and Aldrich Emerging Poets Award, but you couldn't find the winning poems anywhere. The Nebraska Review had to scrap the initial printing of the issue with my winning poems because of a printing error.

Then I got an email from an undergraduate student at a small liberal arts college in Cupertino, California. She had found some of my poetry on the Internet and wanted to write about my work for her assignment. (You can read her essay here: Essay on the Poetry of Scott Edward Anderson)

A total stranger all the way across country found my writing on the Internet.

And now, all these years later, many more have read my work through online magazines and journals and my poetry blog: Seapoetry

More readers have read my poetry than ever could read it in the Nebraska Review or almost any other print publication.

And since 2004 this blog, The Green Skeptic, provided a platform to question the assumptions we make about how we conserve the earth's resources and invest in green technology.

The Internet is many things. At its best, it is a community of voices where there was formerly silence.

Like any community, to paraphrase Parker Palmer, it is where the some of the writers you least want to read do their blogging. But the community of the Internet is richer for the diversity of its voices.

Visit Craig's call to action here: Craig Connects

How does the Internet give you a voice?

Can #poetryday Save Our Souls?

Seamus HeaneyOn Thursday Umair Haque, self-described author, blogger, thinker, and reformer, suggested #poetryday on Twitter as an antidote to the usual "endless series of tweets about (no offense) trivial stuff" that ordinarily fills his stream.

For some of us -- poets and readers -- everyday is poetry day, but the more I thought about it and saw how others were responding to it, the more I started to think he may be onto something.

I'm not convinced that "poetry is the opposite of the profit motive," as one responder wrote, but I do believe with Seamus Heaney that poetry is "an anthropological necessity because if you didn't have poetry, everything would slip back into media speak."

We need poetry and the attention of the poet because, in Heaney's words, it "helps us to live our lives in the face of destruction."

"I keep getting this funny feeling that our degeneration and the fact that we treat great poetry like stupid rambling might be connected," Umair wrote in another Tweet.

Poet and lecturer David Whyte has been talking about the need for reconnecting with poetry for nearly two decades.

"Corporate America desperately needs the powers historically associated with the poetic imagination not only to see their way through the present whirligig of change, but also, because poetry asks for accountability to a human community, for rootedness and responsibility even as it changes," Whyte wrote in The Heart Aroused, his 1994 book about poetry and the need for more soul in the workplace.

We may never get the news from poetry, as William Carlos Williams posited, but turning away from poetry may prevent us from achieving what Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky called "the goal of our species."


(Disclosure: The author is an award-winning poet who also blogs about poetry at seapoetry.wordpress.com.)

How I Almost Created "The Disaster Channel"

This could have been a real disaster.

About 20 years ago, I was on the editorial staff at Viking Penguin, which as the name implies, was a merger of two venerable old publishing houses.

Our company had been bought by the international media company Pearson, which also bought the venerable old merger-house of E.P. Dutton and New American Library.  It was the early days of the consolidation of publishing.

Pearson decided to move us out of our West 23rd Street offices -- and our compatriots out of their Park Avenue location -- and into the Saatchi & Saatchi building in lower Manhattan.  It was a sleek, stark, almost sterile contrast to the rickety bookshelf-cluttered walls and creaky floors of our old building.
 
The editorial staff was starting to be trimmed and many of us could see the writing on the walls.  Of course, there were no bookshelves to clutter them up!

I started kicking around ideas with some friends about what to do next.  I felt stuck.  I had worked in publishing and printing for much of the 80s.  What else did I know?

I had a short stint as an assistant to a baker when I first moved to New York and loved baking bread.  My friend Howie said my bread was so good, I should open a bakery.  (I've told part of that story here.)

But I had another idea: "The Disaster Channel."

That's right, The Disaster Channel.  Nothing but disasters 24/7.  There was plenty of existing content (movies, documentaries, news footage) and there were new disasters all the time.  We could have "Disaster of the Week" specials, send people out with video cameras to chase tornadoes, think of the possibilities!

It wouldn't take much to start and it would certainly be a hit.  People love disasters.  It would be worth millions, billions even, I reckoned.

My friends were mortified.  "How could you live with yourself if you did that?"

"Well, if The Disaster Channel was a success, then I could do my other idea for a cable channel," I replied. "The Poetry Channel: an all-poetry cable network featuring poets and celebrities reading poems, poets being interviewed, and films about poets or based on poetry."

Call it my "Evil Plan."

Needless to say, I didn't pursue either idea.  Since that time, The Weather Channel has picked up the mantle of disaster coverage. (Someone has even done a spoof announcement of the concept here.)

Could I have sold to TWC or was my idea too early?  I'll never know.

The road is paved with ideas -- good, bad, and disastrous.

Friday Green Skeptic Linkfest

I'm going to try something new here on the green skeptic.  Each Friday, I'll post links to a group of articles and posts of interest over the past week or so. Let me know if you find this useful and I'll make it a regular feature.

First up, Heidi Moore on Tesla's IPO: False promises for clean tech: http://bit.ly/dxIWTN

Joise Garthwaite writes about Who to Know and Where to Start with Greentech in China on Earth2Tech: http://bit.ly/cE3BQL

and TechCrunch reports on the Cleantech Group's initial Q2 numbers: CleanTech Venture Investments Total $2 Billion In Q2, Exits Reach More Than $8 Billion.

Two companies I've advised, BlackGold Biofuels and Southern Bancorp, finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, in Business Week's America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs: http://bit.ly/docH6R

Three great posts for entrepreneurs from Fred Wilson, Andy Swan, and Hugh MacLeod:

First, Fred's "Six Slides" post: http://bit.ly/aJIQSj

and Andy's advice: Work backwards, from the customer to the company: http://bit.ly/cr04a2

And Hugh's newsletter featured one of his great cartoons on entreprenuership today: gapingvoid

Finally, W.S. Merwin, a champion of the natural world and its enduring bounty, will be named the 17th U.S. Poet Laureate: http://nyti.ms/cCKvPO

Have a great holiday weekend everyone (in the US, anyway) and enjoy it safely.

2008: What a Year -- Bring on 2009!

Good riddance 2008.

It was a strange year, with many ups and downs for me professionally and personally.

I had knee surgery in January 2008, shortly after one of my largest long holdings, First Solar, took a nose dive. Then my Patriots blew a 16-0 season with a loss to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. I spent a lot of time in DC rather than home in Philadelphia, which kept me away from family too much. I tried to make change happen where change wasn't wanted and made some foolish decisions.

But I went to India, met some spectacular social entrepreneurs there and around the world, and spoke at conferences from Aspen to Salzburg. I had a poem in the American Poetry Review and did two phenomenal readings -- one in New York at the start of the year and at the University of Pennsylvania towards the end. And I got back to Alaska after ten years away, which renewed my soul.

I also built a team at Ashoka, where I was vice president for global development, and helped put together a major partnership with the Gates Foundation around entrepreneurial agricultural solutions in Africa and India.

Then I left that gig to start my own green energy investing biz. At the time oil was approaching $145/barrel and people were hot on the idea. In a matter of months, oil had shaved off 100 bucks and people began asking me "Does oil at 40 kill your start-up?"

A helluva year.

2008 was a year of adjustments, ambiguity, and ambition.

2009 will be a year of adjustments, ambiguity, and ambition, too.

What will be different?

For starters, I'm going to approach 2009 on my terms and with even more dedication to pursuing my idea.

I'm going to stay positive and focused and take the steps necessary to get this thing off the ground. Sure, I will make some adjustments to my portfolio, but I will keep focused on the long-term potential I know is there for clean tech, green energy, and energy efficiency. (And I'll keep trying to contribute to the excellent conversation going on over at stocktwits.com)

I'm also going to get both more global and more local, connecting with entrepreneurs and projects around the world, as I have in the past, but also more locally through things like Philly StartUp Leaders and other local networks.

I will keep trying to improve this blog, exploring the new green economy with a skeptical eye and a passionate heart.

Oh, and I'm going to find a publisher for my poetry collection, finally. (So if you're reading this, publishers, ping me an offer.)

2009 -- bring it on!

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A Poem for Earth Day

What a glorious day, weather was absolutely gorgeous. I got to work in the garden with my kids and help a Temple University complete her project in broadcast journalism (more on that later). Then a wonderful walk in our neighborhood and more family time, before dinner with my wife in an intimate restaurant. (Not to mention the 4-in-a-row homers by my Red Sox against Yanks.) And tomorrow, I'm off to Boulder, Colorado.

Consequently, I won't have an opportunity to do my usual 10 thoughts for Earth Day. Instead, I'll leave you with a poem of mine, "Healing," which recently appeared in The Elegant Thorn Review:


Healing

"Healing, not saving." ~ Gary Snyder


"Healing, not saving," for healing
indicates corrective, reclaiming

restoring the earth to its bounty,
to right placement and meaning--

Forward thinking, making things new
or better or, at least, bringing back

from the edge. The way
bulbs are nestled in earth,

starting to heal again--
the way a wound heals.

Keep warm. Sun following
rain; rain following drought.

Perhaps we have come far enough
along in this world to start

healing, protecting from harm,
from our disjunctive lives.

The way the skin repairs with a scab,
injury mediated by mindfulness.

The bark of the "tree of blood"
heals wounds we cannot see.

Deliver us from the time of trial
and save us from ourselves.

--Scott Edward Anderson


Another of my poems was posted today on poet Deborah Fries' new Good at Last blog: "Dead Red Wing."