Poetry competition CLOSED 28th May 2019 8:16pm
WINNER
Ahavati (Tams)
Ahavati (Tams)
RUNNERS-UP:
Hepcat61
and nomoth
TO WHOEVER INHERITS THE EARTH
Here is the Sloop Clearwater.
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.
( see the entry in tribute of Seeger and The Clearwater sloop, at the bottom of page one )
ENDANGERED
2. The Mountain Gorilla🦍
The world’s smallest population of mountain gorillas—a subspecies of the eastern gorilla—is split in two and scientists have debated whether they may be two separate subspecies. A bit more than half live in the Virunga Mountains, a range of extinct volcanoes that border the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The remainder can be found in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. Since the discovery of the mountain gorilla subspecies in 1902, its population has endured years of war, hunting, habitat destruction and disease—threats so severe that it was once thought the species might be extinct by the end of the twentieth century.
Bring it Back
Your intrinsic blood
intersects with Turtle Island's Heart—
Earth's microcosmic image
mirroring our flowered Universe
Observe summer gnats glint
catching daylight's final hour—
cottonwood buoyant on air;
lush vegetation, consequent
for nested lairs rustling young
Return toward reticent retreats—
reserved evening presence;
arterial memories processing
planetary history, remember
This false empire we ruled:
plastic, fake styrofoam warmth
single use bags—
haystacked needles obvious:
straw and six-pack yokes
swallowing organic roots—
You'll reverse circumstance
Discern water, its overflow;
forests divulging underbrush—
echolocating bats, chirping
crickets, dark Morse-coding
beneath firefly symposiums
receiving natural communion
Heed patterned mistakes;
everything drifts south—
melting pot currents
magnetizing discards of waste:
gravity's double-entendre—
balancing youth alongside age
The human conundrum;
some wanted so badly
to make every difference—
yet, feared such potential success
opposing mass majority
more than their own
self-imposed collapse
Forgive us;
bring it all back
~
intersects with Turtle Island's Heart—
Earth's microcosmic image
mirroring our flowered Universe
Observe summer gnats glint
catching daylight's final hour—
cottonwood buoyant on air;
lush vegetation, consequent
for nested lairs rustling young
Return toward reticent retreats—
reserved evening presence;
arterial memories processing
planetary history, remember
This false empire we ruled:
plastic, fake styrofoam warmth
single use bags—
haystacked needles obvious:
straw and six-pack yokes
swallowing organic roots—
You'll reverse circumstance
Discern water, its overflow;
forests divulging underbrush—
echolocating bats, chirping
crickets, dark Morse-coding
beneath firefly symposiums
receiving natural communion
Heed patterned mistakes;
everything drifts south—
melting pot currents
magnetizing discards of waste:
gravity's double-entendre—
balancing youth alongside age
The human conundrum;
some wanted so badly
to make every difference—
yet, feared such potential success
opposing mass majority
more than their own
self-imposed collapse
Forgive us;
bring it all back
~
Written by Ahavati
(Tams)
Go To Page
ENDANGERED
3. Sea turtles🐢
Human activities have tipped the scales against the survival of these ancient mariners. Nearly all species of sea turtle are classified as Endangered. Slaughtered for their eggs, meat, skin and shells, sea turtles suffer from poaching and over-exploitation. They also face habitat destruction and accidental capture in fishing gear. Climate change has an impact on turtle nesting sites. It alters sand temperatures, which then affects the sex of hatchlings.
Southern California:
Orange County Coastkeepers bused an estimated 1,350 schoolchildren to Huntington State Beach on Tuesday, May 21, for an early-morning clean-up, and about 4,000 kids are expected to help pluck trash off the sand on Thursday, May 23, at Dockweiler State Beach in Marina del Rey.
Along with picking up trash, students form human art displays on the sand, viewable from the sky. At Huntington State Beach, participants formed the shape of a whale with the words “Protect What You Love.” The Dockweiler program also will center on love for the ocean, with students creating a heart in the sand with the message “Care For What You Love.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ocregister.com/2019/05/21/thousands-of-kids-volunteers-are-tidying-up-these-southern-california-beaches-as-summer-nears/amp/
Anonymous
<< post removed >>
ENDANGERED
4. Orangutans
For the two species of orangutans found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in southeast Asia, mature tropical rainforests are essential to their survival. Orangutans live entirely in trees. The reason why orangutans are endangered can be summed up with two words: habitat loss.
Pressure to destroy mature forests and orangutans comes from multiple sources. The demise of an orangutan population often begins with building a road through pristine forest. A new road brings in entrepreneurs and settlers keen to exploit the tropical forest and clear land. Loggers, farmers, poachers and pet dealers all play a role in the endangered orangutan's decline.
Anonymous
<< post removed >>
Anonymous
<< post removed >>
Senryu #33 ...
I have often thought
that Earth might be
so much better off if we...were not.
that Earth might be
so much better off if we...were not.
Written by Ely
(E.A.Rothwell)
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ENDANGERED
5. The Sumatran Elephant🐘
POACHING
Sumatran elephants typically have smaller tusks but they are enough to tempt poachers who kill the animals and sell their tusks on the illegal ivory market. Only male Asian elephants have tusks so every poaching event further skews the sex ratio further constraining breeding rates for the species.
DEFORESTATION AND HABITAT LOSS
In 2012, the Sumatran elephant was changed from “Endangered” to “Critically Endangered” because half of its population has been lost in one generation—a decline that is largely due to habitat loss and as a result human-elephant conflict. Sumatra has experienced one of the highest rates of deforestation within the Asian elephant’s range, which has resulted in local extinctions of elephants in many areas. Over two-thirds of its natural lowland forest has been razed in the past 25 years and nearly 70 percent of the Sumatran elephant’s habitat has been destroyed in one generation.
In Sumatra’s Riau province, pulp and paper industries and oil palm plantations have caused some of the world’s most rapid rates of deforestation. Elephant numbers have declined by a staggering 80 percent in less than 25 years, confining some herds to small forest patches. These populations are not likely to survive in the long-term. The Lampung province has seen its number of elephant herds decline from twelve in the 1980s to only three by 2002. Just two of the remaining herds are considered biologically viable.
ENDANGERED
6. Saola ( Asian unicorn )
The saola, siola, Vu Quang ox, spindlehorn, Asian unicorn, or, infrequently, the Vu Quang bovid (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), is one of the world's rarest large mammals, a forest-dwelling bovine found only in the Annamite Range of Vietnam and Laos. Related to cattle, goats, and antelopes,[2][3] the species was defined following a discovery of remains in 1992 in Vũ Quang Nature Reserve by a joint survey of the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature.[4] Saolas have since been kept in captivity multiple times, although only for short periods. A living saola in the wild was first photographed in 1999 by a camera trap set by WWF and the Vietnamese government's Forest Protection Department.
In the press, saolas have been referred to as "Asian unicorns",[9] an appellation apparently due to the saola's rarity and reported gentle nature, and perhaps because both the saola and the oryx have been linked with the unicorn.
EVICTION IS MY PREDICTION
Mother Nature can be a vengeful bitch
She'll destroy us
Long before we can destroy her
Sooner or later
She'll tire of our harassment
And in a diatribe she'll smite us from this planet
The end of humanity does not mean the end of the world
Seems the earth is still doing fine
Since the Neanderthal demise
Don't think for a minute that you can hide behind God
For if not God's mistress
Mother Earth is the Goddess
The next great war will not be man against man
But man against nature
Want to bet who wins?
She'll destroy us
Long before we can destroy her
Sooner or later
She'll tire of our harassment
And in a diatribe she'll smite us from this planet
The end of humanity does not mean the end of the world
Seems the earth is still doing fine
Since the Neanderthal demise
Don't think for a minute that you can hide behind God
For if not God's mistress
Mother Earth is the Goddess
The next great war will not be man against man
But man against nature
Want to bet who wins?
Written by snugglebuck
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