Rebellion as a Coping Mechanism

 

Protect What You Love

This is not a political protest.
This is an uprising of the soul.
David Brower, ecologyofthespirit.com

What does a Wild Woman do
when the news continues to astound,
when the very last old growth forests
on her Island - and in her village -
are being cut down,
when covid numbers are starting to climb
after a year of compliance
because people are "getting tired"?
(Oh. Boo-hoo.)

She sighs.
She pours a second glass of wine,
because one doesn't do it any more.
(Careful! She knows that is a very
slippery slope. Don't worry.
Never more than two.
It's her mantra.)

She turns off the news.
She would like to write a poem
that inspires hope, lifts hearts.
But she is so freaking tired.

Forgive her. She is old.
She has lived several ages.
This one is Too Hard.
(We are in Recovery from trump.
This will take time.)

But she has always Lived In Hope,
so that flame is still stubbornly flickering.

Perhaps Rebellion is simply
Never Giving Up?

What we have is today:
brilliant April sunshine,
trees full of blossoms and hummingbirds,
we have masks and social distancing,
old growth coming down, viruses from
salmon farms killing all the wild salmon,
we have bears and whales and wolves
starving for lack of salmon -
beauty and grief all mixed together,
because this is where we're at.

Wild Woman is aware, and
what she knows hurts,
but she is awake enough to be grateful:
for another generation of
forest defenders following
in her footsteps at the blockades,
for blue skies, and a sweet spring sun,
for a dog with a wagging tail
and smiling eyes, who stands
on his hind legs at her window
to invite her out to play, (bring treats!)
for still being alive, on Planet Earth,
with its clouds, and soft sea breezes,
its sandy beaches stretching to Forever -
for the gift of 74 years
upon this most beautiful
- this struggling-to-survive-
this needing-our-help planet.

What does a Wild Woman do?
She prays, she hopes, she dreams,
- she may cry a little -
she writes poems, writes letters
to every possible government official, and,
having done all she can realistically do,
goes off to bed and prays for a
Transformation of Human Consciousness
on the morrow.

When they tell us about extinction,
Rebellion becomes trying as hard as we can
to save what we are in imminent danger
of losing, to our
eternal sorrow.

Day 25

My word was Rebellion. For me that is all tied up with activism. I can't just watch all the old growth and salmon disappear, the wild things becoming increasingly homeless, all to make corporation CEO's wealthier at the expense of everyone and everything else. The science is clear. We have to make governments listen to us instead of corporations - or elect leaders who will. Like yesterday.