Eco Poetry
(Green poetry, poems about sustainability & activism)
I’ve read there’s a shortage of art focused on environmentalism. Art, music & poetry can activate public audience by engaging people through fun and powerful formats.
I write more vulnerably, honestly and provocatively in poetry; I think it’s because I feel the spotlight is on, so I better bring my A-game and get to the point fast. With that in mind:
Activate
Get your act together, human;
It’s time you did your part
We’re living amongst robots
I can feel it in my heart
Don’t tell me it’s just me
I dismissed reality
Long ago
I shed that skin
In a compost bin
It’s time to act
like we love our children.
Who or what has done this deed,
Who’s made me turn around?
A handsome bloke, a shiny shirt,
A new creative town?
could it be the universe,
psychotic nurse,
Or an ancient mystic alien curse?
My caring parents?
My watchful aunts,
My army of you?
I don’t vote for right wing nor left leg; voting happens only ONCE every four years. I don’t vote for incumbents or challengers;
I vote for YOU my friend:
We ALL need to work on this.
This plight we’re in
takes everyone, every day
Our only hope
is you.
This article about Indonesia on fire has been on my mind lately. It inspired me to write this poem:
Mother Earth is Burning
Mother Earth is burning.
She yearns
for your concern
She’s sick of our abuses
— Her forests raped —
And tired of our excuses
caught up in the mindless rat-raced
To the end
Did you win?
How did you know?
Was it the leather seats?
Or a chemical glow?
We’ve got mouths to feed
And bills to pay
Did you put your car on layaway?
Don’t drive your car when you can walk
6 blocks is not enough
Don’t take a plastic bag at the store
Bring your own you selfish whore!
You’re killing our children
You’re killing ourselves
You’re killing our future
our past
and our now.
Because you know the cost
You know we’re lost
And you know how to help
And you know you could think
To bring a reusable container to drink.
If you felt we could somehow
Pay the debt later
If you felt the time could come about next year
Or next season
With a new pair of jeans
(is that a reason?)
To wait?
When you look at your calendar,
WHAT DOES IT SAY?
Where was your time spent
last holiday?
Was it helping anything or anyone with needs?
Did you consider your mother with your weekendly deeds?
Could you be a little less sarcastic?
She needs YOU to use less plastic
Our world simply needs you.
She needs a hug.
Quit waiting, my brothers and sisters.
Mom needs us
Today
Not later
Not sometime
NOW.
Look into it
I urge you
Come to her bedside
And act.
How?
Look around
Get involved
Reduce your impact
And help others
reduce theirs.
We need more leaders
– not sheep –
It’s time to dig deep
I ask you to try
It may be too late
But before we depart
We’d better do our part
Mother Earth is burning
Mother Earth is burning
Mother Earth is burning.
Tell Mama Earth
(to the tune of Tell Mama by Etta James)
[New]:
You thought you had found a good world
One to live on, and it was this girl!
But now I’m dying, and you’re going to bars.
Well Drink to me, and move your ass to Mars! I want you to:
Help mama, every day.
Help mama, all the time!
Help mama, get up off your ass and do something to make it right.
[Original]:
You thought you had found a good girl
One to love you and give you the world
Now you find that you’ve been misused
Talk to me, I’ll do what you choose, I want you to
Help mama, every day.
Help mama, all the time!
Help mama, get up off your ass and [do something to] make it right.
[old: That girl you had didn’t have no sense]
[She wasn’t worth all the time that you spent]
[She had another man throw you outdoors]
new:
That plastic bag you use don’t make no sense
Grab your own now, it’s time that you went
And did something for me, don’t just pay your rent.
I want you to
Help mama..
[She would embarrass you anywhere,]
Now your earth is heating up and you got nowhere to go.
If you want our kids to have a future
You should take that cloth bag everywhere,
(She let everybody know she didn’t care)
(Give me a chance I been begging you)
Give me a chance I been begging you
(I just wanna take care of you)
I just wanna live each day, like you
I want you to, Help mama
Tell Mama, all about it, tell Mama, what you need
Tell Mama, what you want, tell Mama
What you want right now, tell me
Tell your Mam… [fade]
It’s Time
where is the moral compass of humanity?
did it slink off to bed in the dark of night,
rejected from ignorance, tired of spite?
Did it lose its path on the way to school,
drowned in the depths of our moral cesspool?
Does anyone care about her neighbor next door?
the legacy he leaves his child? *or the POOR?!*
i grapple for meaning in a crowd of loud silence,
hurtling through space and time: that alliance
that compels us to finish on top and in front,
wanting more baubles and possessions that stunt
our spiritual growth and perception of truth;
i ask ourselves: how can we be so uncouth?
I’m angry with people! We use, we pollute.
we consume recklessly, and lack progress to boot.
greed rules the world with an iron-clad fist.
I struggle for hope on a planet that is…
DYING — not slowly; we’re killing our families!
brothers and sisters: the species beside us;
when you take that styrofoam cup from Dunkin
you murder our children with your thoughtless consumption.
Don’t stand there and act like you don’t know what’s happening.
The facts are established: they are truly unsettling.
Mother Earth is dying at an incredible rate
The high carbon count is our lackadaisical hate
If you had one wish for us:
WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I wish people would BE with the world, and prioritize others:
our mothers, our daughters, our polar bear brothers.
I ask you, my friend: do something –TODAY.
not tomorrow, next year, or a future Earth Day.
The time is nigh, our protector is YOU.
Make a stand, pick a side, leave convenience; it’s DUE.
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