And all at once the clouds descend, shed tears that never seem to end

When dealing with creative approaches to understand human–water relationships, the chapter proposes two perspectives on creativity: writing and reading. It will analyse how authors artfully create images of water and readers are invited to creatively co-produce textual worlds in the act of reading. In particular, two questions are at the centre of the analysis: How do early modern German poets (Paul Gerhardt, Johann Rist, Simon Dach) aesthetically construct water in the context of the climatic changes during the Little Ice Age (1400–1850)? Why might it still be relevant for the inhabitants of the Anthropocene to engage with these texts? The Little Ice Age manifested itself among others in water-related extreme weather events (e.g. floods, droughts, storm tides) that heavily affected food and energy production. In the Anthropocene, we are again faced with the increasing prospect of climate-related extreme weather events. So far, positivist sciences dominate related social and political discourses. The chapter argues that literature can provide a knowledge that is as relevant to deal with the Anthropocene challenges as the still dominant (natural) science knowledge.