Saturday, May 8, 2021

The Last of the Standing People

 

"Forest Traffic!" Digital Art by Pulkit Kudiwal


We are the grandmothers
with wolf howls in our hearts,
gathering at Fairy Creek
to save the last of the Standing People
from the saws.

Can you hear our heartbreak
sorrowing on the breeze
as we watch the future
of our grandchildren
disappearing to make
a few fools rich?

The wild ones are being
dispossessed.
They plead with us for help.
We put our bodies
willingly
on the line.
If these last Old Ones fall
our great-grandchildren
will never see
the breathtaking majesty of
an old growth tree.


20 comments:

  1. O Sherry, your outlook for the future, "we watch the future of our grandchildren disappearing to make a few fools rich . . ." is heart breaking.
    I love the poem, hate the message.
    It is sooo very nice to see you again, here.
    ..

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  2. A powerful message Sherry. As Jim said it is heart breaking. It is sad what man has done in the name of progress and greed. As always, you have written something beautiful that represents and speaks for nature and God's forest creatures.

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  3. I would have expected nothing less from you, the emotion/wisdom/fear/dread come through in your poem .....

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  4. You speak so eloquently for all things nature...sadly it seems a voice in the wilderness.

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  5. My soul aches with this reality, Sherry.

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  6. So much truth in your post. We are standing on a precipice. A fine poem, Sherry.

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  7. Thank goodness for grandmothers with wolf howls in their hearts, Sherry. I can’t believe Fairy Creek is still being threatened. Surely the powers that be have heard your howls, the ‘heartbreak sorrowing on the breeze’!

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  8. I love "the Standing People." They stand so much taller than human anything. Yet it takes human intervention to quell human greed.

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  9. I do hope some of these old trees remain for those who follow. Humans have destroyed so much and so senselessly.

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  10. Love the sense of protection that emanates from this.

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  11. The Standing People are tall and wise, how my heart grieves for their loss.

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  12. I hope with all my heart that the Old Ones don't fall. I was in the forest today and imagined the wolf howls there.

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  13. As an Old Grandmother (!?) myself. I often wonder what is being left for our grandchildren, in this too often uncaring world. We must carry on hoping for the best, anyway. :-)

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  14. oh I do love those grandmothers with a wolf howl in their hearts. Thank you bearing witness and voicing the unvoiced.

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  15. making a few fools rich...that about sums up capitalism.

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  16. will never see
    the breathtaking majesty of
    an old growth tree.

    It is a pity that along the line somebody did a mess-up. It did happen in many instances. Very philosophically treated Sherry, as usual, Ma'am!

    Hank

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  17. You worry too much, Sherry. Lions, mongeese, ducks will survive. They know how to live withing the limits of their evolutionary niches. Humans don't. We won't survive.

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  18. I too love that phrase, Standing People ~

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  19. "The Standing People" - such perfect words for the trees.

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