Happy Earth Day

It's Earth Day today.

Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day has been a rallying call for environmental stewards around the world to actively promote and educate their fellow citizens on the environment. The Earth Day network coordinates a number of world wide programs including in-school educational events, clean-up sessions, engaging businesses and governments on how to transition from a traditional, fossil fuel-based economy to one based on renewable energy, hosting seminars, encouraging "greening" projects (this year's theme is "green cities"), and plenty of other initiatives.

What are you doing this year to celebrate the earth on which we live? I had a conversation with my daughter a few weeks ago in which I was shocked to hear how negative she felt about the future of the world (that's her own future she was talking about).  This year, my aim is to simply turn that attitude around (wherever I find it, but especially at home).  I follow the exceptional blog of George Monbiot who talks about the 4 Ds of climate change inaction - Deny, then defer, then delay, then despair. Optimism always trumps despair.  Even if it is already be too late, it's far better to do something than give up or feel bad. Here's a little poem from the poetry collection Carolyn Howard-Johnson and I wrote titled Sublime Planet.  A poet friend of mine, Rob Walker, set the poem to music, and you can hear our collaboration here: https://soundcloud.com/maggieball/alien-world-h2o

All proceeds from Sublime Planet are being donated to the World Wildlife Fund. 

Alien World

And what of water?

Simple old H2O
clear liquid stuff

you drink every day
most abundant compound

on the earth’s surface
sea water
water vapour
ice
70% of the human body
you know all that
yet, licking moist lips
you also know
the habitable zone
depends on liquid water
just enough warmth
Goldilocks
down here of course
we take it for granted
slurp with abandon
drip down the chin
spray the car
waste
without second thought.

Drink now
slowly
with knowledge
that throughout the universe
aliens everywhere
your distant stardust relations
thirst.

Sublime Planet Begins Celebration of Earth Day 2013 - Free Kindle Book

For the next 4 days, March 29 through April 2, Sublime Planet is free to download at Amazon!  The book features exquisite photography by Ann Howley, and award-winning ecological poetry by me and my co-author Carolyn Howard-Johnson.  You can hear me read the title poem here: http://magdalenaball.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SublimePlanet.mp3

Kristin Johnson has just published the following wonderful review: "Delving into this collection of poetry feels like starting from the famous ... image of Earth from space, and then jumping headfirst into a Google Earth armchair voyage to distant corners and familiar spaces, a verse trip into scientific and emotional depths. No security checkpoints needed here, no airline tickets, no cruise ships. Your passport is imagination, issued by the mind and the world. The passport stamps read "...the crocodile icefish/has an oyster-white heart--not red" (Howard-Johnson's "Transparent Love Song"), or "Ten metres high/cracking the bleached dunes of memories" ("These Heavy Sands"), or other free verse exotic ports of call. This poetry has the 'Wow' factor, and it's clear that these two inspire each other, their quiet but penetrating observations on our fragile yet vibrant planet meshing and complementing each other. This book of poems does more than a hundred shrill eco-screeds to awaken us to concern for the world, for water scarcity, for the Pacific Garbage Patch and trashtrees, for endangered species and tree victims of forest fires, the changing of the weather. Our planet is poetry, as this collection so adroitly proves."  But don't take her word for it.  Go grab yourself a copy here:  http://bitly.com/EarthDayKind
It's absolutely free (but not for long!).