dive deep

 

Greetings, All.  It's the 3rd Friday of the month, the one where Poetry Friday meets Fridays for Future and we focus on climate issues. Let's take a look at the Climate Clock.

As we contemplate how little time we have left to limit global warming to 1.5*C, let's also consider this enormous news: I drove through McDonald's today (why and whether that's a good use of my climate activist economic pressure is a topic for another time) and realized that my new reusable straw was not in my bag.  It's hard to drink in the car (a birthright of the American consumer) without a straw, so reluctantly I popped open the wrapper on the McD's straw AND DISCOVERED IT WAS PAPER, 100% PAPER!!!  That, my friends, is progress, and SOMEONE (someone you know?) has been badgering McDonald's to make that happen. Cheers to the straw activists!

Here's another cause for celebration: "Deep in the ocean off the coast of Tahiti, scientists made an incredible discovery in November: acres of giant, pristine, rose-shaped corals blossoming from the sea floor in what's known as the ocean's "twilight zone.""

 

The research mission, led by UNESCO, found the reef stretches for nearly two miles and exists at depths down to 70 meters, or 230 feet. This is around the ocean's "twilight zone," where there's just enough light to sustain life, and below which the ocean transitions into a dark abyss."For once, it's a positive story about coral reefs in the news, which is quite rare these days," Julian Barbiere, head of marine policy at UNESCO, told CNN.

Indeed, this news has got me bobbing about and feeling pink and positive somehow, like "WEHAVEN'TDESTROYEDEVERYTHINGYET!"  And, if we didn't know this reef was even there, maybe that means there's so much else we don't know, that we can discover, that might save us.

Now, to connect the straw to the reef, I want to make sure you all know about this book, THE LAST STRAW: KIDS VS. PLASTIC, an NCTE Notable Book for 2021, by Susan Hood.

From Kids Book a Day: "Following an introduction by 9-year-old Milo Cress, founder of Be Straw Free, this poetry collection looks at different aspects of plastic, from its undeniable usefulness in many areas to the damage it is wreaking on the environment (especially the oceans) to different ways kids and teens are figuring out to recycle and find alternatives to plastic.  

The poetry is just the beginning in this book that is jam-packed with information and inspiring stories about kids working to make a difference in the world by recycling or eliminating plastics.  The colorful illustrators add a lot to the poems, and the 13 pages of back matter... make this an excellent resource for older kids."

Here's one poem from that book to enjoy with the younger readers you know, and one from the Poetry Foundation for you.

illustrations by Christiane Engel

 

 A Sea Change | Susan Hood

 

Listen to the seagulls cry,

    watching whales

        who used to thrive

            in seas of cobalt blue.

    Those might mammals ruled the waves--

        a most majestic crew!

 

Listen to the seagulls cry,

    watching whales 

        who breach and dive

            in seas of plastic stew.

    Whales eat their fill of bags and cups

        and other human spew.

 

Listen to the seagulls cry

    watching whales

        who can't survive

            sink slowly out of view.

    O wisest of the mammals, please!

        Sea change is up to you.

Pot of Gold |  Ingrid Wendt

For Elizabeth Bishop, 1911–1979, with gratitude

We talk, you and  I, of  mindfulness, here in the world above

          water, but what’s below is watchfulness,

                     pure and simple: creatures trying not to be eaten,

          creatures relentlessly prowling or simply waiting for meals to

 

cruise on by. Except maybe parrotfish.

          Ever industrious, ever in motion, it’s hard to find one not

                     chomping on Yucatán limestone reefs. What we see as

          dead, bleached coral or crusted limestone shelves, for them

is re-embodied Fish Delight. Which means I find them by

          eavesdropping. Ah, those castanet choruses clicking, clacking,

                     a coven of  promises leading me on until there:

          below my mask and snorkel, a dozen or more upside-down

Princesses sway as one, in their pink and blue checkerboard

          gowns, their long, long dorsal crowns

                     cobalt-striped, and turquoise, and fuchsia—useless—

          no Prince to be found, not even in fish identification books,

just me and my ardor. Bewitched, each day I hang, transfixed,

          above them in a slightly different

                     place in that once-pristine, once-undiscovered Yal-Ku lagoon,

          its cradling mix of salt and fresh water

letting me hold myself, and time, and the rest of the world

          stock still.         [read the rest here; the ending is worth the click]

 ****************

And now, before you go, click on over to  Oceana, a Charity Navigator 4-Star outfit, to learn more about one of the world's biggest plastic polluters (yeah, you guessed it--Amazon) and to take a little action.

Our Poetry Friday host today is Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference, where her puzzling reflections and poem fit nicely with the idea that we all have a part to play in changing the way humans live on our home, the Earth.