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Mandy Vaughn, Black Creek
Where I am, the salmon are disappearing.
Hungry wolves and bears and whales
face an uncertain winter.
Wildfires burn in the valleys,
and people stand at the blockades,
trying to save Fairy Creek,
one of the last old growth forests
on the Island - giant ancient beings,
the last of their kind, waiting
to be fed into capitalism's
voracious maw.
Human discord is everywhere.
"There is no peace
without social justice,"
the wise man said.
And social injustice is
everywhere.
We can't save the planet
and ourselves at the same time.
It is too much; we retreat
inside ourselves in defeat,
just when we most need
to unite.
We have "evolved" ourselves
right to the lip of the abyss.
It is a time to weep.
It is a time to sing.
It is time to cast our votes,
time to change
Everything.
For Brendan at earthweal, who asks for evolutionary songs. Mine is a dismal dirge, but it's all I've got this morning.
I feel the same anguish over it right now too. It feels like we are falling headlong into the abyss and most people are only concerned about the impact on their freedom to do whatever they want. Suzanne of Mapping Uncertainty
ReplyDeleteToday I heard in an amazing quote about growth at the edges--something about how mushrooms grow related to children being born both as hope. It's a story older than the Bible. I'll try to find it for you. Your poem speaks of a release at the edges we have left, a release that just might take us somewhere new. We'll never change using the same old tools. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's a quote by Howard Thurman, Find it here: https://www.newcomerpalmer.com/home
DeleteOh, Sherry, you write such powerful songs of hope and despair. You manage to hold them in balance, somehow.
ReplyDeleteHi Sherry, I hope the marches are gaining (or holding!) ground. Drumbeats in this are necessary. I'm for the Bronx cheer which sends humanity packing along with all the other grand evolutionary misstakes. - Brendan
ReplyDeleteThings look so bleak for wildlife around the world and in Fairy Creek in particular. You paint a terrible picture of giant ancient forests ’waiting to be fed into capitalism's voracious maw’, Sherry. As you say, ‘social injustice is everywhere. We can't save the planet and ourselves at the same time’ and It is too much!
ReplyDelete