Wednesday 3 June 2015

POETS UNITED - SUSTAINABILITY

“We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. How can we resent a life we’ve created ourselves? Who’s to blame, who’s to credit but us? Who can change it, anytime we wish, but us?” - Richard Bach

Poets United has set a midweek motif that centres on “sustainability”. Is there a poet out there in this world who is not sensitive to this topic? I know that personally, it concerns me greatly. Here is my poem:

The Extraterrestrial

I come to you in peace,
My star so far away,
A pinpoint of light
In your night sky.
I come to your distant world
And find myself in paradise.

I’ve travelled long and far,
Away from the dry deserts
Of my homeland –
An arid planet, red and barren
Where water’s most precious
And wars are fought over a single well.

Your blue-green world
Hanging in space
Like a gemstone, beckoned,
And I came, succumbing
To its gentle insistence
Like a lover’s gaze.

I come to you in peace,
And seek only repose,
The luxury of drinking my fill,
Eating the lush vegetation
With my wide open eyes,
Never sated by the verdant green.

Your oceans brimming with life
Remind me of our distant past –
As our history writes –
When we too inhabited such a world:
Blue-green, drenched, bedewed,
Immersed in crystal waters.

Your forests, drinking the rain
That falls so regularly,
Are priceless beyond compare.
The flowers costlier than jewels bright –
What use to us are our diamonds,
Common as pebbles on my world?

And yet I see vast deserts, here,
I see the rainforests cut, extinction,
Your oceans polluted, animals dying.
The signs are here that you too
Have set a course that will make
Your earth a world like mine.

I come to you in peace,
And seek only a brief respite.
I bring a message from Hell
To your blue-green Eden:
Time runs short, destruction’s close
Unless you become wise, soon…

17 comments:

  1. Brilliant! Love the device of the alien coming down to earth to bemoan his own planet's demise and warn of our impending doom!

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  2. this is so very touching...so glad to see these blue, green and crystal...i've used them too in my poem today :)

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  3. A cautionary tale! One of the reasons I love science fiction is this very way it helps us see ourselves from a distance, helps us to see future consequences of contemporary action or lack of it. And besides doing that, there is the skill with words--the artistry--which this poem carries abundantly. Love the enthusiasm of the alien who finally reaches a cherished goal and drinks deeply of plenty before seeing the tell-tale signs of a shared history. Beautifully done. Let's get our sustainability on!

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  4. This is absolutely brilliant :D Loved these lines:

    Your oceans brimming with life
    Remind me of our distant past –

    One must take a lesson from the past and strive for a better future..!
    Well done with the prompt :D

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  5. Oh yes. We are at the very lip of the precipice of planetary system collapse that has been brewing this past hundred years. I love the idea of an extra-terrestrial coming to bring us a message. Trouble is, we all hear the message and still nothing happens. Argh.I love your presentation of the material here - put this way, the message is kind and likely better absorbed than my doom and gloom writings on the topic, LOL.

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  6. Yes, it sometimes takes a look through fresh eyes to get some perspective. Good work!

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  7. this poem tells us how much we take for granted this beautiful planet earth

    much love...

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  8. I love the image you paint. Earth is a blue green gem that so many have just taken for granted. An excellent way to make a strong statement

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  9. Yes, our situation requires much wisdom. I hope it falls upon us all. I liked your sci-fi poem. It really makes one appreciate our earth.

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  10. Brilliantly done. Sadly humanity has already gone deaf with greed.

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  11. It is true that sometimes you have to go away to appreciate what you have at home...nicely written

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  12. An outside perspective might be just what is needed to stop the run on resources.

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  13. Nicholas,

    Profound and very true; the clock is already ticking away the availabity to repair. It is sadly rather like that novel I read at age twelve, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. I never thought we could actually tick so many means of destroying our own beautiful world, in the way it has been done. Your poem touched many truths Nicholas.
    Eileen

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  14. Beautifully worked. I got a quick vision of The Man Who Fell To Earth in those first few verses!

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  15. Yes, you have encapsulated it beautifully.

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  16. A cautionary tale well told. The way you've used the alien speaking from personal experience just makes it so much more vivid. Great poem!

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  17. This is exquisite! Love the way it's presented, it makes the message come out loud and strong.

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