Against Capitalism: A Poetic Water-Calendar

Author: Mina Sato

Special Topics in American Studies I, Sophia University

Publication permission was granted on 5 August 2025

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My Revolutionary Calendar project tries to attack capitalism. The theme of my calendar is the cycle of water. I chose this theme because it connects with the class’s reading, David W. Orr’s “Reflections on Water and Oil.” I focused on the concept that water is the fundamental substance from which everything originates. This collection of poems follows the water cycle (How rain is made) and is divided into 7 parts to combat the calendar we use now. I used 7 days (which is the same as the calendar we use now) to overwrite the calendar now that is used for labor (2days to rest, 5days to work). The seven stages I used are runoff, infiltration, collection, transpiration, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Each replaces the days we have currently, which are Monday, Tuesday, and so on. I planned the calendar to form a cycle by making the theme the water cycle and writing the poems based on the life cycle. Each poem in the calendar reflects a different stage. In the following sections, I will explain how this calendar addresses themes connected to battling capitalism.

In the poem “Runoff,” I imagined water that has fallen from the sky—like rain—running down the mountain and beginning the cycle of life. This image is linked to the poem’s theme: remembering our origin, being in my mother’s womb, surrounded by water.  By connecting the natural water cycle to birth, I tried to show that water is not just a substance—it is where we all come from. This idea also supports one of the course themes: the deep connection between nature and human identity.

In the second poem “Infiltration,” I tried to express the moment when language first enters us, ike rainwater soaking into the soil. The poem is an homage to the Gospel of John, but I rewrote it so that Water becomes the origin of everything, and Oil becomes the force of destruction. This idea was inspired by a line from David W. Orr’s “Reflections on Water and Oil”, where he says, “Water, I think, lies at the origin of language.” In contrast, the end of the poem says, “and without oil was not any smoke that rose.” This line illustrates the connection between oil, consumer society, and pollution. The rising smoke symbolizes how oil (capitalism) can produce things, albeit at the cost of destroying the environment.

In the third poem, “Collection,” I focused on the theme of how people wear themselves down through labor, especially in consumer capitalism. I envisioned a salesperson who wastes language—lying, exaggerating, and using phrases like “limited time only” to pressure others into purchasing products. I demonstrated that, despite humans having acquired language, its usage is often driven by profit. The repeated lines, such as “Smile, Smile, Smile” and “Lie and sell the products,” illustrate how language is used as a tool to make money and is subsequently wasted. The title Collection also has multiple meanings. It refers to collecting money, stress, and the original meaning in the water cycle.

In the fourth poem, “Transpiration,” which is the second part of “Collection,” I used the image of transpiration in the water cycle (water is absorbed by plants and then released into the atmosphere) to represent how people save stress and money, slowly starting to break apart. The line “Smile, Sell, Success” turns into “Smile, Stutter, Shatter”, showing breakdown. I wanted to show how people are often obsessed with money, fame, and status in a capitalist society, but end up breaking apart in the process.

In the fifth poem, “Evaporation,” I used the image of water turning into vapor, like river water or moisture in plants evaporating into the air, to represent the stress of people hitting the peak, and evaporating, blasting out as the feeling of despair. After working so hard and pushing through stress, what is left is almost nothing. I used Mammon (a figure from the New Testament that symbolizes greed and devotion to money) to show how the speaker has been mesmerized by oil and turned away from water, which represents God in this context. This is a turning point in the calendar, which is the moment of realization, just before the speaker can begin to heal.

In the sixth poem, “Condensation,” I wanted to show the moment when things that have been lost start to come back. Just like in the water cycle, when vapor condenses and forms clouds, the speaker in the poem begins to feel again. After releasing everything in “Evaporation,” the speaker returns to the water. In the line “Dehydrated, parched, withered,” I tried to show how humans are dried out, both physically and emotionally, without water. I connected this to the ritual of communion. The lines, “The Body of Water” and “Amen”, show that this is a kind of spiritual awakening. Through this poem, I tried to show how returning to the source of life (water) can also mean returning to the self.

In the last poem, “Precipitation,” I wanted to complete the cycle of the water and return to the beginning, “Runoff.” I imagined a cycle of reincarnation, where rain falls, life begins, water is absorbed, evaporates, condenses, and becomes rain again. This poem represents the phase where the soul dies and is ready to become rain again, to live a new life. I also paid attention to the form. It’s the only poem in the calendar that uses a rhyme pattern similar to a Petrarchan sonnet. I chose this structure to illustrate the process of self-dissolution (death), where the consciousness slowly breaks apart and melts. In this moment, there is no individual self anymore. I wanted to show how, in the end, water accepts everything and connects all living beings, gently carrying the soul back to where it started.

Through this project, I realized how deeply water is connected to the basis of our lives. By following the water cycle, I saw how nature and humans are closely related. Orr’s ideas helped me understand how water has shaped our origins, and how oil has transformed us into a consumer society.