image by geraldsimon00 @ pixabay.com
revolution
has it come to this? a world
that wobbles on its heels
and stands still to try
a futile balancing act.
this you cannot dismiss
as water under the bridge
when the detritus of yore
is a-gathering ghastly
swarms of riffraff
refusing the open sea.
how can you even think
of draining the pond?
when the trees are tired
rising and falling on
the same battered land,
and the clouds are a-howling,
cumulonimbus ominous
nimbostratus continuous
abracadabrous,
the wind’s melting mantra
holding the world still
so rain always falls down
on the same blighted ground.
this world that forgets to spin
forgets too the rising water,
rising foul beneath the bridge,
needing to cleanse itself
with a fine stirring, fitting
revolution.
© said sadain, jr. 2018
image by TheUjulala at pixabay.com
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And here’s a counterpoint to cheer you up 🙂
New Evidence That the World Really Is Getting Better
by Raya Bidshahri
“If you allow your perception of humanity to be shaped by the news, it is easy to lose sight of the narrative of human progress. Struggling democracies, suicide epidemics, climate change, and acts of violence are among the daily headlines that continue to overwhelm us with angst…. The truth is that despite our many shortcomings, we are living longer, healthier, safer, and happier lives than at any other point in human history….” Read more here: New Evidence That the World Really Is Getting Better
Truth eloquently expressed, Said. I’m afraid I’m one of those who, on most days, believes it’s already too late. The cycle of water as it should be is broken, and your reference to the magical phrase is entirely appropriate because what most people believe in relation to climate change is basically magic. There are a stack of “feel good” books out there now, and people rush to accept that hocus-pocus precisely because it does make them feel good. Sadly, that lack of realistic awareness has a negative effect. Apologies; anyway that is what I think.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts here, Steve. That “feel good” feeling has actually been oft exploited by the very system that had largely contributed to the carbon and plastics pollution now choking the planet, ensuring the endurance of that lack (or misdirection) of awareness that you speak of. Here’s a recent article that refers to such a misdirection as corporate “greenwashing”: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/more-recycling-wont-solve-plastic-pollution/ .I certainly hope the world has not yet been totally unhinged from its stable center, and that spectacular, even revolutionary, measures can still be done to keep things from edging faster to the extremes.
I agree, Said, and thanks for the ref–interesting.
Wonderful poem and so relevant today! Harming the environment, some people forget, harms us as well as we breathe polluted air, drinkable water becomes a scarcer commodity, and only time will tell what ingesting chemicals and plastic detritus will do to our bodies.
Thank you! Indeed, man, a delicately-built creature, would probably not survive its wanton destruction of the environmental balances that sustain life, while Mother Nature would persevere and even recover in the long run. But hey, no worries for humanity, Elon Musk is going to help us colonize the caves of Mars in the nick of time! 😀
The notes at the end sort of remind me of an old rant against news media…
https://dreamlife.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/book-2-you-suck/
Thank you for the link, Yacoob! That’s a really good read. We can only hope that people can now fight back with the advent of the Internet and social media, but yes, it is still quite a struggle for a true balance.
I think citizen journalism and social media does give some hope, but those forces do morph to fight the threat, and ‘fake news’ and doubts are easily cast about stories that go against the wishes of those in charge.
For me, true balance would simply be reporting facts alone. Stats, facts, and quotes. No journalistic opinions or angles in between. Just the raw, pure info, and readers interpret it as they wish.