Press Release: 10 June 2010 by Julie L. Moore

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STATEMENT

Using the technique of erasure seemed fitting when writing about the catastrophe that has erased so much beauty and life in the gulf–and seemed to indict BP with its very own words from early June. We now hear talk of the kills to come–the “static kill” and the “bottom kill” as BP works to erase its mistakes. The irony in the language is thick and disturbing. Although much of the oil has disappeared from the surface of the water and God’s amazing creation, the one we should work so hard to preserve, is trying to eradicate the problem, too–microbes are eating away some of the oil–clouds of oil exist beneath the surface, thanks to the dispersants used, and significant amounts of oil now pollute the bottom of the gulf. One erasure leads to another, and another.

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Julie L. Moore is the author of Slipping Out of Bloom (WordTech Editions) and the chapbook, Election Day (Finishing Line Press). A Pushcart Prize nominee, she is the recipient of the Rosine Offen Memorial Award from the Free Lunch Arts Alliance in Illinois, the Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize from Ruminate, and the Judson Jerome Poetry Scholarship from the Antioch Writers’ Workshop. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Journal, Atlanta Review, CALYX, Cimarron Review, The Missouri Review Online, New Madrid, The Southern Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. You can learn more about her work at www.julielmoore.com.