Pages

Monday, July 31, 2023

Giving Up the Goat

 

Politicians Debating Climate Science
source


For years, the tipping point was
comfortable years ahead,
when we'd, hopefully, be mostly dead.
Oops! My bad, for here we are,
far past the tipping, planet spinning crazily,
us lethargically, lazily,
the kaleidoscope of possible disasters randomly
spitting out storms, tornadoes, wildfires, floods,
torrential downpours, drought killing the woods,
and an Atlantic Ocean as warm as a hot tub,
whose currents are in danger of collapse.
Oh, there's the rub.

And what makes me most desperate of all?
That everyone is still living Their Best Life,
in their big houses and gigantic cars,
as if these problems were simply
a series segment on the news, Not Real,
God forbid we should wake up and feel
the out of control, topsy-turvy Now -
legislators paying glib lip service 
to how
Things Must Change, while
Nothing Does, the fossil gods
still so adored/abhorred.

It is enough to make an elderly climate activist
grow  disenchanted
with humanity, almost bored -
watching the inevitable
cliff edge we are heading toward.
(Is it ennui or catatonia, this malaise?
Help me.
Toss me a kind and hopeful phrase.)
I grow weary. I want to pull up my moat,
give up the goat, stop up my throat,
hop on a boat, (so at least I can float,)
and find a peaceful river
on some misty dawn
to sail away on,
to the heart-knell
we are
going
going
gone.


Sigh. for Brendan at Desperate Poets: 

where we contemplate the Tipping Point, which we clearly passed some time ago while summits talked and talked, heads nodding wearily, only lifting in outrage when Greta Thunberg, age fifteen, talked turkey and said What Must Not Be Uttered - the climate truth that our world is on fire.

(I intentionally used goat instead of ghost, not sure why, unless it is my own form of denial, lol.)

Heather Cox Richardson at Letters From an American wrote a wake-up piece, if ever there was one, this past week. Here is the link. Sobering, urgent stuff about the imminent collapse of Atlantic Ocean current cycles. Yet the urgency to lower emissions is still no where on the horizon, everyone is too busy mopping up towns, fighting wildfires, rebuilding infrastructure - the same entities that thought addressing climate change was "too expensive." Gah.


11 comments:

  1. as if these problems were simply
    a series segment on the news - truly quite unbearable... but let's just talk about more drilling, more war and more hate... maybe that will save the earth and us!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can identify with your feelings as we watch this crazy world imploding. I feel the same ennui a lot of the time. It's only when I get out into nature on my own or when I'm meditating that I feel fully alive.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry did it again - I forgot to add my name - Suzanne. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Indulging in climate porn is hardly any substitute for climate action, but here we are, paralyzed in the headlights of collapse. "(Is it ennui or catatonia, this malaise? / Help me. / Toss me a kind and hopeful phrase.)" Of which there are only worse grievances and lesser solutions. Learning to live with that -- to SING that -- is the initiation trial of our age's poetry. I honestly don't know if it's possible.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I OVE that statue/photo! perfect! "Ooops! My bad, for here we are . . . almost bored." You capture it all in this poem! Sharing. My new favorite poem, especially the rhymes. Ok, I'm crying now. Breathe a little, Sherry. Your breath lightens the world.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Too much television. Sherry, the world needs to see more True Greens in action living *our* Best Lives--Green, not Greedhead lives--walking, gardening, living at healthy distance, practicing frugality, keeping our houses (whatever the size) sustainable. Like you. So don't let'm get your goat!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can feel your anguish and frustration here, Sherry, and yes, the sigh-heaving boredom of shouting to the intentionally deaf. Why are the fools in charge the ones in charge at such a crucial time? I wish there was some comfort to throw you, but I can only say what I hope in my heart, that it will become too expensive for the money men to ignore catastrophe at some point, and then they'll try to fix what is making them lose profits--or abandon us all to live in a dome on Mars. I love your last stanza, and the phrase, giving up the goat.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Grim reaping and reading here Sherry. All I can offer you here is the sense that heartbreak is the only thing we can really fully bring to this crisis and this poem trembles with plenty of that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't think this is "indulging in climate porn" and poetry is a form of activism. For some, it's all that can be done, like if they have physical challenges etc. Where would we be without poetry anyway? But i hope such poems also get sent to government in-boxes.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A heartbreaking and honest read. There is going back now - our only hope that there is a way through. That that in us, as a species, which truly is earth might live on.

    ReplyDelete
  11. “I want to pull up my moat,
    give up the goat, stop up my throat,
    hop on a boat, (so at least I can float,“

    LOL, love that!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for visiting. I appreciate it and will return your visit soon.