Book Reviewed: Is a River Alive? By Robert Macfarlane

The ecological witness Rivers and poetry flow together. They have inspired poets as symbols of time, life, memory, and renewal. This book brings rivers into poetry in prose form. It is thought provoking where you feel the birth, love, life, and death all mingled in the flow. A a river is not biologically alive, it doesn’t breathe, eat, or reproduce, but it has a physical existence and a role in the greater web of survival, it is an ecological witness. Many traditions, poets, and philosophers have described a river as alive because it moves, changing course, sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce. It nurtures life, plants, animals, and human habitats that depend on it. The cycle of beginning in springs or glaciers, growing stronger with tributaries, and eventually merging into the sea. Like a living organism, it responds to changes in its environment like droughts, floods, and deforestation. The Wye River in Wordsworth’s vision is a sacred inner landscape that nourishes the soul. Others weave them into meditation on landscape and spirit. River Sarasvati is a holiest of holy rivers in Rig-Veda, the sacred scriptures of Hinduism that no longer exists because of geological and ecological excesses. It was once a goddess to the Vedic sages. Many rivers are named after goddesses: Dana (later the Danube), Deva (the Dee), Tamesa (the Thames), and Sinnann (the Shannon). The author describes the survival of three rivers under threat: in Ecuador from mining, in India from pollution, and in Canada from dams. There are numerous rivers around the globe that are under threat due to pollution why choose an Indian river for pollution for his discussion?