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Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Truth: Warning: Distressing to animal lovers

Bear cub found clinging to dead mother bear
near Tofino
CBC News story / Jennifer Steven photo


Mother bear dead, lying on the shore,
whimpering cub still clinging to her teat,
growing weaker; he cannot comprehend
that the source of all nourishment,
comfort and protection is gone.


I grieve; I grieve
for all the wild ones
suffering at our hands
as we encroach upon the land


A family of wolves is
running for their lives;
the whirr of helicopter blades above
chasing them across the prairie.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
And seven members of a family
that loved their lives
lie bleeding where they fall.

Do the men with guns have hearts?
How do they wrap this in their minds,
when everything alive
just wants to live?

The black cliffs above
have stood for a million years,
the dark green trees
rooted, silent sentinels,
saved from the saw
only by the steepness 
of their slopes,
as, below,  all the old growth 
falls.

The Old Ones say there was a time
when the salmon were so plentiful
The People could walk upon their backs,
and the prairie grasses were dotted
with buffalo as far as the eye could see.

Now the buffalo are gone,
and the salmon are dying:
riddled with disease, lesions, tumours,
full of contaminants, and radiation.
Whales wash up on shore
with stomachs full of plastic
from the ocean we have turned
into a garbage dump.

I do not have years long enough
for all this grieving.


In an eyeblink in the annals of time,
we took healthy abundance,
the interdependence of all living things,
and turned it into misery.

Now all the wild things
have questions in their eyes
and sorrow in their cries,
like the teardrops in my heart.

We took abundance
and turned it into misery
through greed and love of money.
A truth so hard to bear.

I grow old, I grow old,
and all my hopes
are slowly growing cold.



John Forde with cub / Jennifer Steven photo


A local man found  a dead mother bear, her cub still clinging to her teat, a few days ago on a small beach on one of the uninhabited islands. He took the cub to a wildlife rehabilitation centre and it will be released back into the wild once it is big enough to survive, in eighteen months. The caregivers distance themselves from the bear, to ensure it can be released into the wild when it is time.

Poor little bear. He didnt have much time left when he was found so I am thankful to our local hero, John Forde, for rescuing the little guy.

I read that humans evolved around 200,000 years ago, and “civilization”, as we know it, about 6000 years ago. The Industrial Revolution, where we took a departure from stewarding resources to ravaging them for profit, began in the 1800’s. In just two hundred years, a mere eye-blink, we have created this mess, through greed and love of money, on a planet that thrived for millions of years.

As we have all the information, and proof we have over-burdened this planet before our eyes, it boggles the mind to see corporations and legislators still putting profit before planetary survival.

One wants to think we will turn things around in time. But we are already so overdue, and things appear to be getting worse, at least in North America. The earth takes ten million years to recover from a mass extinction. Maybe next time around, humankind will get it right?


A depressing post. But, sadly, true. For Susan’sprompt at Midweek Motif: Truth


Source of facts here

News story about the baby bear cub here

12 comments:

  1. I feel with you. The time to change our ways was yesterday.

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  2. Unrelenting truth and the grief it raises dance together in this poe. I can imagine both the individua's and earth's ends. Hard stuff. Beautiful. May it be read and understood. May those who hesitate find their tears, their hands and their strength.

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  3. you hit the mark Sherry... great post

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  4. My hopes are growing cold too, Sherry. I hope the young have idealism and that things can change. Your examples were sad and heartfelt!

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  5. "Whales wash up on shore
    with stomachs full of plastic"

    I feel so sorry to read such things

    Thanks for dropping by my blog today Sherry

    Much♥️love

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  6. Now all the wild things
    have questions in their eyes... truly asking what kind of monster species has been unleashed upon them.

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  7. Sadly we stupid humans that with such persistent destruction of both fauna, flora and the seas as well we are also slowly destroying the Earth itself. How could we be so dumb?

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  8. This is such a sad poem of truth, Sherry; I grieve with you for all the wild one, and thank goodness for heroes like John Forde.

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  9. We took abundance
    and turned it into misery
    through greed and love of money.
    A truth so hard to bear.

    Sadly that's the truth Sherry! The point is that it is going on unabated and greed seems the overriding factor!

    Hank

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  10. Your words speak the sad and terrible truth Sherry.
    Profit is in today and to hell with tomorrow. My hopes are cold too as we run forever backwards, grabbing what we can and to hell with the consequences.
    I think we have already destroyed our world and worry it is too late to make good again.
    Maybe if we die out as a species, the Earth will flourish again...
    Anna

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  11. This is so heartbreaking Sherry. In spite of all this there are hearts who look after the motherless cub and those who write.

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  12. if anything, perhaps, what we should be praying for is that there won't be a next time around .... for us .... we've created enough chaos and damage .... and I don't think we should be "privileged" enough to have a "second chance coming" after the ultimate destruction ....

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