Written for: Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads – Wordy Thursday with Wild Woman~Earth Grief
A statue in Berlin, by Isaac Cordal entitled “Politicians Discussing Global Warming” source
“The topic of climate change is on our minds and on the news these days as never before. Floods, hurricanes, wildfires, a heating planet, melting poles: Mother Earth is struggling desperately under the heavy load of human and corporate demands. Those of us who are aware may be carrying what I call”earth grief” as a result.
WE are doing this, with our relentless and voracious demands on a struggling planet.
It is our task, as poets who love all life, to put our pain, our fears and our hopes into words. Using as many or as few words as you need, write about earth grief / climate change in general.
or
Pick one facet of the planet’s struggle and give voice to it: wildfires, elephant massacres, extinctions, plastic garbage dumps in the sea, dying coral reefs, grieving mother orcas – whatever you are most moved by in this moment.
or
If this is too depressing, write your poem about the beauty of the natural world, all that you hold dear.
Let’s sing our pain and our love to our suffering Mother Earth.”
I wonder where children will swim
when lakes and rivers thin,
and water use must be curtailed.
We start to see how we have failed.
Precious liquid difficult to attain
is dirty, polluted with plastic remains,
bottles, cans, and medical waste.
We start to see how we have defaced.
The beautiful earth of animals and trees,
where we experience even the death of bees.
Mother Nature’s colors bleed brown.
We start to see how we have brought it all down.
I pray for a miraculous transformation of consciousness, to start turning this around now. But hope grows fainter every year. Thanks for this, Sara. You have said it so well.
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It is actually getting more difficult for me to write about. Thanks, Sherry.
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Your words resonate and I like the form you chose.
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Thanks, Helen!
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Well, I can’t help but think of my two small granddaughters when I read this and wonder what kind of world they’ll have to “fix” when they come of age. My wish is that we’ll get it together and put into place some true ways to turn this problem around. We can do it!
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If we don’t, our children will have quite a mess on their hands.
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Sadly, yes.
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The abuse of water in rivers and seas and the devastation of forests are unforgivable as there is no planning except to make as much profit now and perhaps something will turn up in the future. Sadly that possibility is fading as we respect nothing and understand less. By our actions we are responsible for the death of the natural world everywhere…just to profit a few greedy humans.
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Exactly.
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What an amazing statue! An important topic.
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Thanks, VJ!
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You are welcome!
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Indeed. Where will any if us swim, play, garden, Live? Not just the waters but the land itself. We are being smothered under our trash.
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It is heartbreaking.
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I think we bring it upon us, but we the worst generation will leave it to our children to clear up.
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That is a sad fact.
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I just saw the Trump administration said they weren’t going to try to curb carbon emissions because it’s already too late to save the world…
It boggles the mind. (K)
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Nothing more can boggle the mind of Trump. It’s already boggled.
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I like that statue. I’m skeptical about global warming theory (feel a need to mention this, tweeting this week’s poems) and wish people would accept the absolute fact of local warming–cities are always hotter than rural areas *to their south*!–but the sculpture is a good metaphor for so many other instances where people just ignore triggers of cognitive dissonance.
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Thanks, Priscilla.
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