It's Earth Day today. I'm not usually a 'tree hugger' as such (though the bark on some of the eucalypts around my house is so smooth, it's tempting), but our Goldilocks planet is a pretty incredible place, and I've been doing some intense reading (and a little writing) on the current state of play, and thought that, for today, I'd provide an environmental poem from an upcoming collection I'm working on with my poetry partner Carolyn Howard-Johnson. We were actually hoping to have the book ready to launch this year on Earth Day, but we since attracted the attention of an agent for our foodie poetry book (Persephone's Juicy Jewels - more on that soon), and have been focusing our poetic attention. Nevertheless, Earth Day it is and environmental poetry you shall have.
Tipping
Point
From a
stable equilibrium
hands
outstretched
sunshine
lights your hair
molten
gold
melts
to horizon
calmly
changing
light to dark
day to
night.
Your young eyes flash
warming
the room
the
house
the
planet
with growth comes hunger
rumbling guts
gnaw your insides
you eat and eat through
four
billion years of evolution
now held loosely
by one thread.
When our fingers
touch
electricity
crackles
static
charge connection
in a
moment's pause
between past and present
the highway
and the
road
fork held high
paused, undetermined
delicate
a crossroad.
The future
waits
impatiently
your
decision.
Lovverly poem. :)
ReplyDelete... I do think we're well over the tipping point though. Too much has happened for the genie to be shoved back in the bottle.
The trick now is to gather enough momentum to start the see-saw going the other way, before Mother Earth decides she's had enough of 'intelligent' aerobic life and does something Herself.