A quick one cos it’s been a long day & I’m very tired.
NB I didn’t get to post it last night because when I found myself waking up from being asleep in my computer chair I realised I’d run out of puff & so took myself off to bed.
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there’s a word for this, but i can’t remember what
first we warm the earth so much
we melt the arctic & the permafrost
then we start drilling right there
yep, in the arctic & the permafrost
Ms Morissette, this is your 1 minute call
By this late stage of the month, I had hoped to move on to a few more “positive” poems. Some Good News Poems (of which there are, unquestionably, some). But I keep getting drawn back to things I want to share with people who possibly don’t know, some of the crazy shit that’s going on.
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techno fixes: otherwise known as plans B, C, G, Q & Z
fertilizing oceans with iron : supposedly : to get sea plants : photosynthesising phytoplankton : thus growing faster : thus pulling CO2 : out : of the air : trouble is : small scale tests of this : have been tried : to no known benefit
covering deserts : with vast : white sheets : a la Christo : thereby reflecting sunlight : back to space : you know : what the ice caps : used to do : before we : melted them : like giant : dripping down our hands : ice-creams
building some form of : superdooper : whizz bang : machine : that can suck carbon : clean out the sky : there’s been limited success : trialling these : odorous particle eaters : just in no way : no way nearly no way : in enough quantities of scale : to be of any benefit : can you guess : what powers them
exchanging : very cold : deep ocean water : for much warmer : surface water : the top 200 metres : only exchanges : with the deep : every : 10,000 years or so : therefore : by artificially encouraging them to swap : the oceans : can be a heat sink : while we : find a permanent solution : haha you know i’m kidding : we’ll do nothing proactive : always ever only : reactive
some of the : sun-dimming : options which have been suggested : & remember : this is not comedy i’m writing here
space mirrors : that’s right : big mirrors in space to bounce : the sun’s rays away : thus potentially : running the risk : of inadvertently flashing it : into a passing alien hyperdrive’s eyes : thereby really pissing : our FTL neighbours off
cloud brightening : spraying seawater skywards : from specially coopted : fleets of boats : or tall towers on shore : supposedly to create more cloud cover : or to make the clouds we have : more reflective : longer lasting : or something
the most popular option : revolves round : spraying sulphate aerosols : high into our stratosphere : via retrofitted planes : or cannons : or even : & this is genuine : a really long hose suspended by helium balloons : acting like : an artificial volcano : spewing forth : ash & debris : which floats around : reflecting sunlight : up up & away
even a small scale : “nothing too big” : local : nuclear war : between Pakistan & India perhaps : could work : would be easy : to orchestrate : the results : should probably bring : a mini ice age : though who knows : what other : pesky side-effects besides
or, you know, we could : properly fund renewables R&D : eat less meat : plant some trees : even : & here’s a thought : leaping out of left field : actually : curb : fossil : fuel : emissions
Saw an article which was published yesterday with the headline: Australian fossil fuel subsidies hit $10.3 billion in 2020-21. This number seems shocking, unless you know anything at all about anything. Given how tired I am from getting all the past 9 days poems up, I thought it’s low hanging fruit, but I’m gonna pick it anyway. (Some poet days are harder than others.)
NB still had issues uploading photo so it’s not completely solved: had to restart computer three times before it “took”.
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10 billion dollar fossils
Scummo & his LNP dinosaurs
are increasing fossil fuel subsides
as they’re being phased out worldwide
every minute of last year $19,686
was given to coal oil & gas companies
& major users of fossil fuels
they like to pretend
they’re important players
giving back to the economy
instead of the socialist teat
sucking velociraptors they are
— give em an indue card
& be done with em
As always, Anzac Day crops up as a potential topic during NaPoWriMo. I’ve written before how this day is a conflicted one for me (see previous Anzac Day poems for more, particularly last year’s addition to the oeuvre). And as with two days ago (Bill Shakey Day) having the theme of “climate change” superimposed over “Anzac Day” initially flummoxed me. Until this idea presented itself, which in my opinion, solved the conundrum perfectly.
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the actual war to end all wars
sure we’ve trounced off to battle
like it’s some sort of boy’s day out-
church picnic-gungho adventure-what!
just because the mother country demanded it
when her monarch couldn’t solve a tiff
with two of his cousins
yes we’ve fought proper wars against fascists
& communists & nazis & people who believe
different silly things to our silly things
& tragically, traditional custodians of our own nation
— enemies real but more often fabricated
to serve the current political narrative
wars which we endlessly celebrate
in often mawkish, sometimes trite,
occasionally deeply moving ways
but our biggest battle is all around us
yet most cannot see the war being waged
funded every day by billions of dollars
from multinational companies who believe
their right to profit outweighs a home
habitable by all — humans & animals alike
Been wanting to write this poem (or a version of it) ever since hearing the term. Thankfully, once I started, it was surprisingly easy. Images taken from a range of astronauts who have spoken on the subject. It’s not the poem I thought I was going to write so I might have another crack at it one day.
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the overview effect
when looked at
with an astronaut’s eye
the earth is not so very big
from a mere 250 miles up
exactly the distance
between Athens to Istanbul
the sky that once went on forever
is actually as thin as
a piece of paper
nature is everything
clouds, mountains, forests
deserts, oceans, so much ocean
rivers like necklaces of pearls
& she glows day, night, sunrise,
sunset, glowing in every colour
not all of man’s might can be seen
but too much can — erosion, degradation,
wounds, sprawling cities, oil slicks, scars
she disregards borders
for the foolish political fictions
she renders conflict ridiculous
not that the blue marble is big
she’s frighteningly mind-bogglingly
small so so so very small against
the ongoing vast silent emptiness of space
Shakespeare’s birthday/deathday. Each year I try to write something Bill-affiliated. This can be made harder by having a theme superimposed over the top of it (ie, like pandemics or climate change) but at least it forces me to think outside a few boxes for some green inspiration. Which is always a good thing. Need to apologise in advance for the long pome, I didn’t have the time to write a short poem.
If only poets had the power that multinational corporations have to effect change in the world.
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Bill S & his posse of Nature Poets
Bill being a country boy born & bred
was a big lover of nature
dropping dozens of wildflowers
animals, trees, natural events
63 birds, & more into his plays ;
with whimsical abandon
he set them in forests, on coasts,
on rugged heaths
— if he were writing today
climate change would be his bent
so too Bill Blake’s rage
against dark Satanic Mills
which were pumping his pristine
English skies full of black soot
& were, after all, the beginning
of man-made climate change
the posse is being assembled
Lawrence & his dark forest soul
would definitely be there …
with his animalistic magic
of snakes & bats & pansies
a third Bill, Wordsworth
knew nature was divine
& believed true happiness
was achieved when existing
in harmony with it, always happy
to wax lyrical about daffodils,
clouds, & Tintern Abbey
youthful firebrand Keats
loved nature’s vibrant scents
& colours & cool calming water
a man who happily sang odes
to Nightingales, Autumn, & the Sea
would get in on this action
although somewhat simpler
in scope another John (Clare)
less complex & less well known
marvellously describes the natural
world & rural life in affectionate
vignettes of Winter Evening,
Wood Pictures in Summer,
& the Little Trotty Wagtail
Emerson’s belief that we understand
truth only by studying the song of nature
& Humblebees & Snow Storms
& Shelley’s awareness she destroys
as well as creates; singing odes
to the West Wind, Skylarks & Mont Blanc
& Dickinson finding awe in everything
Light Existing In Spring
Birds coming down the Walk
& Frost whose name suggests he should be
though not a pure nature poet loved
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
many modern poets too are in the posse
the marvellous Mary Oliver who instills
poems with wonder-filled images
drawn from daily walks near her home
Wild Geese & Journeys on Summer Days
& Gary Snyder an activist who speaks
with an ancient voice but modern tongue
of fertile soil, animal magic,
the power of solitude, rebirth;
the love & ecstasy of the dance
& Mountains and Rivers Without End
but as wonderful as all these
nature loving poets are
what we really need
is for everyone to remember
they too are poets, alive in this bleak
eternal universe only because
our home is a delicately crafted
paean to life
Inspired by a line of Warren Buffet’s when he was pretending to be the billionaire Green Messiah who would save us all.
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The Ark
let’s assume : just for a moment : that anthropomorphic climate change : is absolutely : fair dinkum : ’od’sblood : a serious thing : something : worth worrying about : & after all : the odds are looking : pretty good : or bad : depending on : your linguistic bent : that they are :: surely : if we’re going : to make a mistake : let’s err : on the side of caution : on the side : of the planet : of the only planet we have : y’know : just to be safe
to use a metaphor : that doesn’t entirely : hold water : but might be appealing : to more conservative minded : perusers of poetry : if you have : any common sense : you have to build : the ark : before : the rains come : no good : still hammering : it all together : even as : the flood waters : lap your thighs
but truthfully : we need : more than a single Ark : remember Noah’s : was built : not to hold : everyone : on earth : only the privileged : few
hmmmm : if only : there was something : big enough : that could : sustain : us : all
Big extractive companies don’t care where the goodies are; don’t care what has to be destroyed to get to them; just hope a new source of fossil fuels isn’t found near your place.
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sacrifice zones
big mining, petrochemical companies
& heavy industry — that is: extractivists —
are all compelled by their gross beliefs
there are places that don’t matter
there are people that don’t matter
they must think this so these matter
less nothings can be strip-mined-open-pit
mined-clear-felled-transformed into toxic
waste dumps-dug up-drained-destroyed
so air can be poisoned
so effluent can be pumped into rivers
so soil can be contaminated with heavy metals
& they will to continue to extract
in order to continue making a profit
they will continue to sacrifice everything
even the earth herself
Playing with a word I learnt last year and thought might make a good poem title (& hopefully poem).
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solastalgia
The homesickness you have when you are still at home.
word & definition coined by Glenn Albrecht
Australian philosopher & Professor of Sustainability
that peculiar
form of distress
that envelopes us
in a misty kind
of claustrophobic
cling wrap
when we see our
homelands both
lived & idealised
lands which bring
peace simply by being
give us tranquility
remind us to breath
to hope to sit
quietly & still & just
when we feel those lands
callously destroyed
paddocks ploughed under
for another subdivision
megahardware store
or discount supermarket
or cut open for coal
or fracked set on fire covered in oil torn up by trucks
then
there is no solace
How useful are doing the little things when the biggest culprits are allowed to get away with not just doing nothing, but actually increasing emissions?
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inconveniences
sometimes i’m overwhelmed by the futility
of me, you, anyone, but in my case — me
not eating meat
not using plastic drink bottles
not washing my car every day
(not washing me every day)
not using the AC till it’s truly necessary
recycling plastic bags & trying not
to even buy them in the first place
not sucking stuff through straws
drinking tap water
switching lightbulbs
unplugging gadgets
buying locally, op shopping
& avoiding fast fashion
using cruise control
for better fuel efficiency
keeping tyres properly pumped
& so on & tediously on
all these are but minor blips — mere inconveniences
when compared to what really should be getting changed
gareth roi poet boi 