POETS UNITED - VITALITY

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” - Chris Maser

This week Poets United has as its mid-week motif “Vitality-Energy”. This is perhaps quite apt as the vitality of our planet is being discussed yet again, this time in Paris…

The twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) is taking place from 30 November to 11 December 2015, in Paris, France, under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Another talkfest? Another congregation of politicians to spout forth platitudes as they quaff their champagne and eat their gourmet dinners at the gala functions? Another lot of scientists vying for Nobel prizes at whatever cost? And meanwhile ordinary people try to demonstrate around the world, aware that what is being done by governments and scientists is not enough.

My poem below:



Vitality

The sun drips pure drops of golden energy

And forests green drink deep, slaking boundless thirst;

A wondrous transmutation in each viridian leaf

As chemistry’s vital soup mixes:

Radiant light, carbon dioxide and water,

To make a syrupy fluid sustaining life.

An endless cycle that for a billion years

Keeps all in balance, making our Earth a blue-green Eden;

Sunlight, heat, water, oxygen,

The molecules of life dancing tirelessly:

Sugars, proteins, fats, solids, liquids gases,

All in each cell admixed in right proportions.

And as we grow in numbers, and our pullulating masses

Consume, pollute, destroy, despoil and divest the earth;

A dismal transmutation in each and every place,

As human filth poisons air, sea, land, river and lake:

Lead, mercury, dioxin, DDT, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide,

To make of our Eden, a toxic greenhouse.

A hundred years or so, were enough for man

To throw the delicate balance off kilter;

Ozone depleted, carbon heavy, oxygen starved,

Our planet marches towards destruction:

Species extinct, great forests felled, ice melting,

Climate disrupted, our vitality sapped…

Too late to stop?

Too far gone to reverse?

Too few that care?

Too poisoned to recover?

Yes, if we rely on politicians on a Paris junket to act,

And not on each and every single one of us, doing what we must.