Who Speaks Up for the Trees?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
All loves, hates, jealousies,
in shades of evergreen
on the finest canvas ever seen
Would-be giants, sentinels
of a civilization
protective of its own, pawns
in a civilization feeding
on ages of rewriting human history
and its blood stained pages
Inciting song and laughter,
music and poetry,
humanity acknowledging a duty
A reader
has been in touch to say she would never travel on the London
Underground again following the tragic events of July 7th 2005 in which she
lost a close friend. Similarly, she would never visit the USA because ‘... it has
to be a high profile target for terrorists.’
While I can
understand and sympathise with how she feels, terrorists can strike anywhere at any time. We can but remain
hopeful that we will leave our homes for work or whatever and return safely.
Besides, if we give in to our fear of terrorists and their misguided belief
that they are entitled, for whatever reason, to force their views on others by
means that confirm the existence of evil in the world… they have won.
Dare I
suggest that Earth Mother, too, should be on her guard against those set n
destroying the environment? There is an eco terrorism that I suspect is as great a threat to us all as its human counterpart, if not more so in the longer term. (I have always had the mind-body-spirit of an eco-warrior if not the bare-faced nerve to put my eco-convictions to the test - yet.)
WHO SPEAKS UP FOR THE TREES?
We are two
so-splendid trees
standing tall at the edge
of a wood, conspiring with song
and laughter, symphony
and poetry made to run the gamut
of a blessed serendipity
standing tall at the edge
of a wood, conspiring with song
and laughter, symphony
and poetry made to run the gamut
of a blessed serendipity
All loves, hates, jealousies,
in shades of evergreen
on the finest canvas ever seen
only to be redefined
by all humankind along along lines
of well-meaning insanity
by all humankind along along lines
of well-meaning insanity
Would-be giants, sentinels
of a civilization
protective of its own, pawns
in a civilization feeding
on ages of rewriting human history
and its blood stained pages
Inciting song and laughter,
music and poetry,
humanity acknowledging a duty
to save our woodlands
for generations while selling off trees
for generations while selling off trees
to
property developers
Who looks down at twin logs
and sees us as we were
or hears leafy winds whispering
names of any cut down
Who looks down at twin logs
and sees us as we were
or hears leafy winds whispering
names of any cut down
in their prime here, there, everywhere,
no matter the time of year?
Oh, but the world may yet rue
its short sightedness
in scarring nature's face (or worse)
forgetting we were here first,
and how who laughs last so often laughs
the louder and longest
Oh, but the world may yet rue
its short sightedness
in scarring nature's face (or worse)
forgetting we were here first,
and how who laughs last so often laughs
the louder and longest
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2004; 2018
[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by
R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005]
Labels: deforestation. climate change, eco-terrorism, ecology, environment, global conscience, global warming, Green issues, human nature, mind-body-spirit, nature, poetry, regeneration, society, terrorism, trees, wildlife
posted by R. N. Taber | 07:51
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