Poetry competition CLOSED 28th May 2019 8:16pm
WINNER
Ahavati (Tams)
Ahavati (Tams)
RUNNERS-UP:
Hepcat61
and nomoth
TO WHOEVER INHERITS THE EARTH
Poetry Contest Description
Let what your entry says about extinction of life be a rallying cry to what mankind must/ should/ can do, if anything. It’s up to you!
Welcome to
”TO WHOEVER INHERITS THE EARTH”
and I’m Jade, your host for this competition.
Please read the following text by poet Amy Miller ( who’s poem immediately follows ), which inspired and explains the premise of this competition. And then —
submit a piece on your thoughts as to how you think such news should be handled. Let what your entry says be a rallying cry to what mankind must/ should/ can do, if anything. It’s up to you!
( Guidelines to follow the text )
Amy Miller:“The United Nations report released a few days ago, predicting that a million plant and animal species will soon face extinction due to human civilization—possibly causing catastrophic harm to our food and water systems—cast a pall over everything this past week. Like many, I’ve had even more thoughts than usual of mass extinctions, famine, and despair, along with a glimmer of hope that a finding this frightening may finally persuade governments to take radical actions to turn the tide. As a writer, I constantly wonder whether writing is worthwhile—I mean, will there be anyone around to read it in a few generations? I keep thinking of the line in William Stafford’s poem ‘Waiting in Line’—‘the chance / to stand on a corner and tell it goodbye!'”
🦎Rules/ Guidelines🦅
🐘 Two Weeks Duration
🦊One Entry Per Pseudonym
🦋 Poetry Only, No Prose
🐋New or Not So New
🦍Title and Link Your Ink
🐠No Collaborations
🐻No Spoken YouTube Entries
🙈No Erotic, Period
🦉Respect
🐯PM Me re: Questions
🐸Thank You!
Amy Miller
TO WHOEVER INHERITS THE EARTH
If it still stands,
find the bench on the bend
of Crystal Springs trail with a view
of the cold lake
and cormorants. We were idiots,
but we liked this. Also cats on our belly
at night. Taqueria
windows white with steam.
A certain shade of lilac that painted
the hills
for a single week in May.
We had a saying about the meek,
but the crops
failed all of us equally,
the Earth so democratic for a moment.
We kept writing—
bless you if you’re reading this—
because to stop would have been death
before death
before death. To know
the mistakes we made, with everything,
made a long
and foolish memoir.
And what was there to do but write it?
We are
so young. Tonight
white blossoms blaze outside the door,
a scent
like spring has lost
its mind and pumped out all
the pheromones
in the arsenal. We are
so in love as well—this place—
three deer walk
down the center of the street,
lit for a moment, then crossing to the dark.
—from Poets Respond
May 14, 2019
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/06/720654249/1-million-animal-and-plant-species-face-extinction-risk-u-n-report-says
Anonymous
Related submission no longer exists.
REVOLUTION AD INFINITUM
I need to get up
and let my apparent sins
boil in the morning kettle.
The snake I was afraid of as a child
has now drowned.
At the T-junction I will turn left
and heading in the other direction
let opposites-of-true pass me by
on the other side.
The edaphon are quietly at work …
a glorious display of co-operation.
In a few months
I will put my spade into the compost-heap
gently lift out some humus
and spread it around, cultivating life.
As a closing ceremony I will bless the worms
who will tell the bees I am on their side.
This is a simple revolution - one that can be repeated
ad infinitum.
‘Edaphon’ are the soil-earth equivalent of the sea’s plankton - i.e.: the microbial activists that support all life in the food-chain above them.
Cockroach Poetry
When the bombs start to drop
I won’t be there to make them stop
I am glad to say, I’ll be happily gone
When mankind sings its final song
When all stand and shake their fists
Their regret, they didn’t slit their wrists
Induced by a simple political corruption
Morphs into mutually assured destruction
Man's inability to admit that he is wrong
Man's arrogance not being allowed for long
It all started right here
With ignorance and fear
With unrivalled hatred
Intelligence now jaded
Egos wildly unchecked
Mans’ existence wrecked
Compromise viewed as cowardice
Sends you all to the abyss
No Satan, no god
Religion a fraud
Mankind slowly melts
Pointless chastity belts
Spared by the blast
The diseased dies fast
Humanity without distinction
Ear-marked for extinction
Despite any and all pacts
Fake news, alternative facts
No slogans no sound bites
No marches, no cock fights
No more moronic riots
Finally the earth quiets
Then all is still
No human left to kill
I hope cockroaches
Write better poetry
Written by David_Macleod
(14397816)
Go To Page
I Did Not Complain
I did not complain when you plundered my skin,
Erasing the blush from my burning cheeks.
I did not complain when you punctured my veins,
Nourishing yourself from the wells of my soul.
I did not complain when you gorged upon my flesh,
Peeling back the layers to satisfy your hunger.
I did not complain when you impregnated me with your poisons,
Robbing the fertility from the depths of my womb.
I did not complain when you choked my lungs with your addiction,
Fueling your conquest of my blood and bone.
I did not complain when you carved your legacy from my bosom,
Disfiguring my beauty to entertain your acquisitiveness.
I merely lie before you, drawing my failing breaths as you say,
I love you darling, but I need you to give me more.
Erasing the blush from my burning cheeks.
I did not complain when you punctured my veins,
Nourishing yourself from the wells of my soul.
I did not complain when you gorged upon my flesh,
Peeling back the layers to satisfy your hunger.
I did not complain when you impregnated me with your poisons,
Robbing the fertility from the depths of my womb.
I did not complain when you choked my lungs with your addiction,
Fueling your conquest of my blood and bone.
I did not complain when you carved your legacy from my bosom,
Disfiguring my beauty to entertain your acquisitiveness.
I merely lie before you, drawing my failing breaths as you say,
I love you darling, but I need you to give me more.
Written by Blaidd
Go To Page
Anonymous
<< post removed >>
Related submission no longer exists.
In Death, Are All Our Worldly Cares Forgot! - Sonnet Sixteen
In death, are all our worldly cares forgot!
Do all the natures of our ills find rest!
Does every angered thought and act unknot,
To leave our souls in love and peace impressed?
In billion years’ progress, at last, we stand,
From God’s first thought to here, where we have found,
Our brink, our deaths, in our made foreign land,
And does the Earth not laugh at our renowned!
How deep our arrogance consumes our soul,
One million species lost and think that we
Will sure survive the cost of our control,
Our suicide will set the poor Earth free.
In death, will Nature put our ills to rest,
To leave its soul with love and peace impressed.
Do all the natures of our ills find rest!
Does every angered thought and act unknot,
To leave our souls in love and peace impressed?
In billion years’ progress, at last, we stand,
From God’s first thought to here, where we have found,
Our brink, our deaths, in our made foreign land,
And does the Earth not laugh at our renowned!
How deep our arrogance consumes our soul,
One million species lost and think that we
Will sure survive the cost of our control,
Our suicide will set the poor Earth free.
In death, will Nature put our ills to rest,
To leave its soul with love and peace impressed.
Written by Hepcat61
(geoff cat)
Go To Page
Periwinkle
( a Nursery tale )
She saw rain puddles each as a pearl
In re-flected sky drifting over,
And the specialness that filled the girl,
Who could trust in the dump where she play’d,
That to walk in the sky’s dappled air
Brought to life buddings from seedlings raised
When she wore the bright blue in her hair.
And her mother would smile & then teased
How her “Jilly” did just as she pleased.
She saw rain puddles each as a pearl
In re-flected sky drifting over,
And the specialness that filled the girl,
Who could trust in the dump where she play’d,
That to walk in the sky’s dappled air
Brought to life buddings from seedlings raised
When she wore the bright blue in her hair.
And her mother would smile & then teased
How her “Jilly” did just as she pleased.
Written by Jade-Pandora
(jade tiger)
Go To Page
NOT AN ENTRY
To live and die, Nature's cycle
the lights of life
like starlights on clear nights
full blossoms like yellow daisies
on fields of green
nature causes changes
wet kisses of rain on leaves
sunshine lend warmth
colour them yellow
wind blows hard
causing pops in fluffy seeds
flying them away
to grow and procreate on new fields
lights of a life
nature lends her love
to live and to die
within the arms of Gaia.
like starlights on clear nights
full blossoms like yellow daisies
on fields of green
nature causes changes
wet kisses of rain on leaves
sunshine lend warmth
colour them yellow
wind blows hard
causing pops in fluffy seeds
flying them away
to grow and procreate on new fields
lights of a life
nature lends her love
to live and to die
within the arms of Gaia.
Written by Grace
(IDryad)
Go To Page
ENDANGERED
1. Amur Leopard🐆
Since 1996, the amur leopard has been classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered with less than 70 individuals thought to exist today. It is hunted and killed for its beautiful fur, its habitat is being destroyed for human settlement and agricultural practices.
The End of the World, Really?
Everyone imagines the end of the world
as widespread death and destruction.
This may happen at the start, however,
I imagine the conclusion far differently.
I believe the world we live in is already dead
We exist by harvesting its’ dwindling remains
Not enough food, water, resources, space
rare species vanish as soon as discovered.
I also believe that death and rebirth
will happen from one breath to the next.
The earth was not created young
It is created anew every second
for each and every living being
It is not difficult for for me to see
that it’ll happen once more, for all
What once died will live once more
Life will permanently triumph over death
remedies known for every ill and pain
Those persecuted will know peace
All that hunger will be forever satisfied.
Externally, the world will look the same
Life as we know it will proceed as is.
just with one indelible, irrevocable change
Universal, enduring peace and understanding
All questions answered, prejudices gone
no more fear of death, loss, hurt or lack.
At the world’s end - let me correct that
the end of this world, as we know now
will be the introduction of the world eternal.
If only it would happen in our lifetime!
Written by inechoingsilence
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To Mother (A Prayer after the Cataclysms)
Tales from the Old Man – The Defiant Heart
We sat around the camp fire under the stars
as we felt the cool mountain breeze in our faces
Then the old man stood and walked in circles around the fire.
His tattered robes swayed in the light wind.
With his gaze on the flames he lifted his cup and began:
“In those ancient times
They raped, pillaged and exploited her
They plundered everything she had given them
Through the centuries they treated her without care
And though she always gave her love in return
The eons of abuse took a toll on her
Until finally one day she lashed back
And it was only fair.
Guilty and innocent perished together,
Too many to count
It mattered not what generation stood at fault
When she unleashed all her fury
When the earth shook and the oceans rose,
When mountains crumbled and skies darkened
When deserts and valleys burned and froze
They all fell,
Cities, states, nations and empires
She cleansed through water and fire
But her justice had been done
She washed away the transgressions of men
And then she forgave us
When new generations were born
Who knew not the sins of the past
Her children would be one with her
This fire and this water
Is a reminder of a balance we must maintain
The symbiosis between us and her
To Mother”
To Mother, we all exclaimed, our cups raised
And drank the wine from the very earth we inherited.
We sat around the camp fire under the stars
as we felt the cool mountain breeze in our faces
Then the old man stood and walked in circles around the fire.
His tattered robes swayed in the light wind.
With his gaze on the flames he lifted his cup and began:
“In those ancient times
They raped, pillaged and exploited her
They plundered everything she had given them
Through the centuries they treated her without care
And though she always gave her love in return
The eons of abuse took a toll on her
Until finally one day she lashed back
And it was only fair.
Guilty and innocent perished together,
Too many to count
It mattered not what generation stood at fault
When she unleashed all her fury
When the earth shook and the oceans rose,
When mountains crumbled and skies darkened
When deserts and valleys burned and froze
They all fell,
Cities, states, nations and empires
She cleansed through water and fire
But her justice had been done
She washed away the transgressions of men
And then she forgave us
When new generations were born
Who knew not the sins of the past
Her children would be one with her
This fire and this water
Is a reminder of a balance we must maintain
The symbiosis between us and her
To Mother”
To Mother, we all exclaimed, our cups raised
And drank the wine from the very earth we inherited.
Written by wallyroo92
Go To Page
Sloop Clearwater (what one person started)
( Pete Seeger )
On the Hudson River, New York
the graceful silhouette
of a familiar sloop
passes onlookers who recall
a time when the river was filled
with waste and toxic runoff,
when nothing
and no one was safe
in or near its sluggish water
filled with
trash and human feces.
Pete Seeger, folk singer,
activist,
who watched the Hudson
peacefully flow by
for hours
atop his Beacon home
he and his wife Toshi built.
Kneeling on the shore,
one day, Pete put his hand
in the pulse
of the river current
and knew their friend
was very ill, unable to speak.
He could not tolerate
what had been
happening years, any longer,
and that he would dedicate
himself to saving the river.
Fifty years later from when the
craft first sailed the Hudson,
the sleek wood sloop drifts
downstream.
The crew is made up of students,
learning about conservation,
that hoist her mainsail on this
gray, rainy, spring morning.
The gulls are flying inland,
the tide seems uncertain
as the day becomes
an afterthought
as to what may follow, with
the unstable air in its vacuum,
his voice is risen...
*Where have all the flowers gone
gone to graveyards every one
when will they ever learn
a time to be born
a time to die
a time to heal
I swear it’s not too late
*Lyrics from “Where Have All The Flowers Gone”, and “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
On the Hudson River, New York
the graceful silhouette
of a familiar sloop
passes onlookers who recall
a time when the river was filled
with waste and toxic runoff,
when nothing
and no one was safe
in or near its sluggish water
filled with
trash and human feces.
Pete Seeger, folk singer,
activist,
who watched the Hudson
peacefully flow by
for hours
atop his Beacon home
he and his wife Toshi built.
Kneeling on the shore,
one day, Pete put his hand
in the pulse
of the river current
and knew their friend
was very ill, unable to speak.
He could not tolerate
what had been
happening years, any longer,
and that he would dedicate
himself to saving the river.
Fifty years later from when the
craft first sailed the Hudson,
the sleek wood sloop drifts
downstream.
The crew is made up of students,
learning about conservation,
that hoist her mainsail on this
gray, rainy, spring morning.
The gulls are flying inland,
the tide seems uncertain
as the day becomes
an afterthought
as to what may follow, with
the unstable air in its vacuum,
his voice is risen...
*Where have all the flowers gone
gone to graveyards every one
when will they ever learn
a time to be born
a time to die
a time to heal
I swear it’s not too late
*Lyrics from “Where Have All The Flowers Gone”, and “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Written by Heaven_sent_Kathy
Go To Page
Pete Seeger, the folk music icon who passed away in 2014 at age 94, conceived of the Clearwater in the early 1960’s with a simple goal. “We’re going to build a boat to save the river,” he said. With Seeger’s inspiration, and the commitment of multiple generations of leaders, crew and volunteers, the sloop has achieved much more.
