ALIVE, ON PLANET EARTH

                                        

Beautiful photos by Nancy Powis, R.I.P.

When the Westerly blows,
and waves crash rapturously
upon the shore,
when treetops poke their spires
up through the fog and mist
along the slopes of Wah'nah'juss,
my heart exults in wonder.

When the eagle's piercing cry
echoes across the harbour,
and the heron picky-toes
along the rocky shore
seeking her breakfast,
when dogs with loopy grins
go lolloping in and out
of the waves at Chestermans,
and surfers stand to ride, and fall,
and rise again,

When the morning sun rises
over Lemmens Inlet,
geese flying above in a wavering V,
as the sandpipers whirl and swoop as one
along the water's edge,
and ravens croak their gobble-cry,

When sunset paints the sky
with colours too fantastic to describe
as the big old fiery orb sinks down
below the horizon at day's end,

When just being alive and breathing
in this forever power-place
seems wealth beyond compare,
and I most richly blessed,
thankfulness expands my heart
to bursting, again and again,
so dearly do I cherish the beauty,
the sheer interconnected wonder
of Clayoquot Sound.

How grateful I am
to have walked this earth walk
along its beloved shores,
the song of the waves
forever advancing and retreating
in my heart;
how dearly I feel the blessing,
rich with all life's worth,
just to have another day,
like this,
alive, on planet earth.

for my prompt at earthweal: to describe the landscape that most calls to our hearts. Some of you have likely read this before. I didn't think I could describe this place any better, so have posted this earlier poem. 

Tofino is beautiful. In 1989, it was a quiet fishing village with a few early whale-watching companies. When we blockaded to save the old growth in 1993, the world saw how beautiful it is on the news and started coming. Now we are over-run with tourism and  housing is scarce and unaffordable - except for the building i am lucky enough to live in. A lot of young working people are living in tents, cars and vans. It has been this way for 30 years. Everything has turned into tourist rentals and b and b's. Money, money.

Logging of old growth continues on Vancouver Island. There is hardly any left. A favourite forest near me is slated to fall for a massive housing project this autumn. It hurts. We tried hard to save it. Now we are demanding a tree protection bylaw to save what's left.

Some of my friends are blockading right now at Fairy Creek, a mystical forest on a West Coast watershed. Capitalism only knows how to gobble. It is suicidal, but blinded by greed.