Classroom Consensus OR Planet Earth, Deserving Better

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Many thank to those of you who have emailed to wish me a speedy recovery following my recent accident. I am still housebound and cannot put any weight on my left foot so hopping around my flat on a Zimmer frame! The nights are not good. But I am coping better during the day with help from friends when they are free. Hopefully I will be well on the way to a full recovery in a few weeks, and I keep telling myself that. I must be patient. Old(er) bones take longer to heal. It has made me realize how difficult life is for people living alone who are incapacitated in one way or another. We take so much for granted, even simple things like making a cup of tea.

Meanwhile…

Education starts and remains ongoing in the home. School and university are just part of a larger picture. Put a foot wrong, and that larger picture becomes a smudgy mess.

So where are we going wrong? Maybe parents and teachers and just about everyone else in the adult world needs to start listening more to what up and coming generations have to say about the kind of life and world they want to grow up in? If the world doesn't act on climate change now, its children's children are likely to pay a heavy price if not the ultimate.

Oh, and what has sexuality to do with anything outside of personal space? (Ask any LGBT person, any age.)

This poem is a villanelle.

CLASSROOM CONSENSUS or PLANET EARTH, DESERVING BETTER

Find nature at war with us
again, and yet again;
high time we made peace

We’re to blame (who else?)
for creating acid rain;
find nature at war with us

Save all species, keep trees,
(room enough for grain);
high time we made peace

We seize woods for houses
(a growing population);
find nature at war with us

Climate, ignoring all nature's
tears and cries of pain;
high time we made peace

Politicians into green issues, 
(on Vote-for-Me Lane);
find nature at war with us,
high time we made peace

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008