Poetry as Protest

2 Eco-Poems, don't mistake the Earth for something we simply walk upon....

This is the last time I will be a bird

This is the last time I will be a bird.

My belly swoops full of plastic and ocean, 
these wings become arms as I fall 
through insignificant thermals. 

Here in my new thin fingers I grasp 
land like a rug. Where feathers may have 
brushed their combs so lightly to leave barely a mark, 
I can only sculpt my presence into the earth. 

I bleed here.
The sea washes me clean, salts my wounds. 
The sun drys me out so I scab over.

Aloneness becomes loneliness then isolation.

With a fist full of shells and a storm coming in, 
coral becomes blood, 
or blood becomes coral, 
brittle with life’s leaving. 

The contents of my stomach 
lives beyond me, making ever smaller grains 
of colourful sand.

(First Published in Rebel Talk - a collection of eco-poetry produced by Extinction Rebellion)

Chris Jordan's 2009 photo of dead albatross chicks quickly went viral and inspired environmental activism around the world and this poem (Credit: Chris Jordan)

Spear


This is where the snow fell.

This is where I rained myself translucent. 

And you, with all those needles 
piercing the ground, 
wept in your own way.

I was witness.

I saw my story in yours,
how I was always helpless, 
locked away.

We crouch on the slope together.
You precious and secretive. Me, 
taking tottering soul steps between 
you as solid, you as infinite.

You as cloud, as bird, as fox.
You as lover, you as mycelium, you as
a million billion leaves, 
falling, rotting, unfurling. 


This is where a spear of sun
breaks us open. 

Again and again.  

This dreadful loneliness 
sliced vertical, many times over  

makes
company. 

(first published in Lighting Out  - poems to answer the dark, by Beautiful Dragons Collaborations)

(photo taken in the Eiffel, Germany, when this forest was my very best friend)

If you feel moved to gift me some of your hard earned cash in return for these words I would be so very joyful. If cash is tight for you please consider restacking or recommending me. thanks so much for reading!


These poems, despite being fairly old are utterly of our time. 

The first one especially now at Halloween (and heading towards Christmas) when plastic waste is at an all time high in the form of costumes and sweet wrappers, decor, even pumpkins are problematic and they aren't even plastic! (well sometimes even pumpkins are plastic!) It won't end unless we stop, stop buying all the crap stop wasting stuff, start making things to last, repair, reuse, recycle, take care of what we have. 

The second poem is a poem to my beloved forest this is where I stepped from my bedroom door out into a (human managed) wilderness. In this place I made deep connections with the land here in Germany and with animals that walked here. It is in this forest where I developed my depth of connection to the earth - not simply this small space I inhabit but a wider grander thing. When I speak of the forest as being all things to me in the poem, I really mean Earth. Our most treasured thing, that perhaps in our boredom and self focus we have forgotten is really our very best friend. 

I encourage you to do more to help your very best friend thrive. Small actions have big repercussions. Don't mistake the Earth for something we simply walk upon. Be inventive, be creative, be your true self.