Poets were challenged to write honoring our planet through creativity and action, harnessing an awareness, regarding environmental issues and reflecting positive change, using their voices to advocate by weaving verses and capturing the essence of our natural world, igniting their passions for environmental stewardship or simply expressing their thoughts and emotions despite this planet facing adversities and unfavorable conditions.
AGGRIEVED EARTH
Nonstop cold war on the crust
melts down mantle into sooty dust
Hunger and chaos shatters core
death is knocking at every door.
Barren lands with the murky seas Homeless beasts and smokey trees Dateless tale of riots and foes plagued by avarice all my shows.
© Rafiya Sayeed Jammu and Kashmir, India
TEMPORARY PLANET For a million, trillion, unknown years,
This place evolved alone;
It's ice took shape -
It's seas appeared -
To crave this land of stone.
Creatures evolved And then disappeared As if they were a sudden mist,
When suddenly somewhere from all this mixture -
A new mammal came to exist.
They slowly rose from crawlings
To stand upon two feet,
Then looked around this forested land,
And decided to deplete.
A need for shelter
A place to carve a home A stone axe where the first trees fell,
Their caves were soon abandoned,
They soon became the hunters The first signs that our planet fell.
And so they drove on carelessly, Through many endless wars,
Through plagues that tried to wipe them out;
Throughout global heating...they still endured.
Despite the many famines,
Every warning that was sent -
It has now at last reached the stage...the end game -
Where it is too late to repent.
© John Anthony Fingleton
Lambaré, Paraguay
Father Time peers upon all life, turns away with shame as Mother Earth chokes upon smog and pollution blinded by destruction, corruption and greed
deafened by the cacophony of noise,
Tongues twisted and deceit
maimed by callousness, laziness, indifference
Numb by rippling effects of negative repetition o' patterns,
ignorance and carelessness
tattered, drained and consumed
father time debates whether
to bring forth the end of days
Look.
See.
Listen.
Hear
All that is around
Unite and save our mother earth
It's all we have to live upon.
it's all we have to love upon.
© Mena Sisto
Canada
THE EARTH IS BLEEDING
The birds have taken flight from the neighborhoods
So are the trees, and green groves, pushed to clumps and clusters
Replaced by proud and egoistic structures, raging like burners
The centipede of civilization is on the prowl, through the woods.
The earth is decaying, its arteries are clogged with discarded refuse;
Lungs infected, body separating from filth, and civilzational dust.
No longer the pristine streams greet us with the same warmth and trust;
The mountains denuded, and forests ravaged by human greed and abuse.
The cuckoos rarely cu-coo with trilling voice across your hearth,
The nightingales' no more sing, serenading their mates at night.
The fresh air has lost out to gaseous fumes and fossils finite
Locked and braided with micro plastic, the earth is gasping for breath.
The earth is bleeding, unable to bear the mayhem and madness
And eagerly waiting for healing touch and poultice of kindness.
© Kalucharan Sahu
India
EARTH DESTRUCTION
Tampering with nature's plans
Who do you think you are
Altering the world and its land
Just for the sake of our cars
Polluting the oceans and rivers
With all our toxic waste
Dumping without thinking
Causing chaos in our haste
Cutting down the forests
Making animal species extinct
What on earth are we doing
It's time to stop and think
It's time to save the planet
To help mother earth bloom
Time is of the essence
Do something to help soon.
© Donna McCabe
UK
MOTHER NATURE
I miss gamboling around like a lamb on the meadow,
feeling the grass sprinkled with dewdrops under my feet
while welcoming a new day at dawn.
I want to feel your warm motherly hug
when winter dresses you in a white-as-snow dress
and adorns you with glittering rime ice,
getting you ready to welcome the Holy Child.
I'm weaving a sweet-scented flower crown at summer for you
to dance together with the Sânziene 1, to bring good luck.
I, the humble poet, am writing these verses
to show my gratitude to you for what you gave me
and continue to give me from the bottom of your heart
without asking for something in return
like many souls blinded by riches and power do.
© Gheorge Laura
Romania
NOTES:
1 Sânziene are gentle fairies from Romanian folklore that are celebrated every year on June 24th, in Romania.
Source: Wikipedia
Haiku
save the mother earth
enveloping atmosphere
gen next legacy
© Subhashchandra Adhav
India
