Always pleased when this month is over (“April is the cruellest month” indeed). That said, I’ve been planning for this poem for a while — ever since the inspiration for it came. A variation on much of this month’s stuff …
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(M)orpheus
in the last bliss-filled : moments before dawn : i complete a poem : i’m soul-fizzingly pleased with
after days of starts & snatches abstract : unoriginal images & clunky similes i’ve completed : one beautiful thing to pay tribute : to orpheus & his life-destroying doubt
single-handed walked a difficult path : ploughed through prose : purpled : pumpkin patched : & guided : something delicate & rare to the light
just as i am about to read : over it : in a highly gleeful, cork-popping : champagne-guzzling celebratory way
a cockatoo screech of alarm : curses me : & those lines : of poetic perfection : whisper away into ether
like eurydice’s half-smile
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Day 30 — TIL i learnt 7 Facts About Grief & (may have made up) 1 Myth
7 Facts About Grief & 1 Myth
Fact #1: Is normal #2: Hard work #3: Unpredictable #4: It comes & goes #5: Always takes longer #6: The way out is through #7: Yours is the worst kind
I began the day working on what I thought would be a suite of short poems under the title “10 common myths about climate change”
I thought it would be quick & easy to offer a witty one or two line rebuttal. It wasn’t. It was hard hard hard. & I’m not sure how much poetry they contain. The tough thing is so many answers require nuance (so much so, I’ve considered it as a possible title of a future poem) which i) takes time to explain & ii) deniers don’t seem to really want to know about.
So what you’re getting is 5 mythpomes. The other 5 might appear sometime in the future (or not). If they do, perhaps I can choose the best 2-3 to be the actual poem. However, having essentially written 5 pomes today, I wonder if I can have the next 4 days off.
Finally, to borrow from one of the articles I read: “the myths in this list have been studied thoroughly by climate scientists and repeatedly debunked. Yet they persist, often as a result of an organized disinformation campaign waged by special interests whose goal is to raise doubts among the public and delay action on human-caused climate change.”
5 common myths about climate change
Myth #1: It’s the sun.
Sure , the sun’s changed intensity in the past causing profound climate modifications often ice ages which form over thousands of years not the few hundreds scientists are studying — that said : solar irradiance is actually down a shade from a post-war peak : so , no
Myth #2: Scientists disagree on the cause of climate change.
No , they don’t . Not climate scientists at least . Sure maybe there’s some botanists, paleontologists, seismologists & epidemiologists who aren’t convinced — but do you go to a dentist for a heart transplant ; or a podiatrist to have that weird looking growth on your back removed .
Myth #3: The climate has always changed. It’s natural.
Correct . Always has . Always will .
But . What the deniers willfully overlook is the unprecedented pace of change . Temperatures have risen 10 times faster than during the last mass extinction 56 million years ago .
Myth #4: It’s cold out. What happened to global warming?
Facepalm . This one should be easy . Weather is not climate . The end .
Surely it’s obvious that Down Under summer days can be over 40 degrees Celsius for a weeks at a time while snow falls in Cornwall .
Nor do these two diverse weather patterns preclude broad temperature shifts across the entire Earth over the course of months , years , and decades.
Myth #5: Carbon dioxide levels are tiny. They can’t make a difference.
i. True , carbon dioxide (aka CO2) comprises a minute fraction of our atmosphere less than tenth of a percent . but that doesn’t mean it’s not great at its job — ie , trapping heat ; CO2 punches above its molecular weight . For most of the past million years carbon dioxide has been below 280 parts per million yet since the revolution of industry started levels are now 415 parts per — 35% increase in a century & a half . tiny you say ?
For comparison — at 1.3 parts per million sarin gas irritates mucus membranes ; pulmonary issues begin when exposures exceed 15 parts per million ; & you’re dead in thirty min if the concentration tops 430 P.P.Ms .
it’s not the fraction that matters but the effect it has
ii. also true , CO2 is only one of many ironically water vapour is the greenhouse gas with the biggest impact ; nitrous oxide & others play their role too (however , that’s a poem for another day)
gareth roi poet boi 