moonwalk vs. heatwave

why touch the moon?
because we can
wish and will to
guide our hands
we the builders
can we fix it
we the builders
yes we can

hidden figures
hidden brains
hidden Nancys
hidden Drains

now touch the earth
and feel its heat
will we wish
to cool our feet?
we the people
can we fix it
we the people
yes we can

instadraft ©Heidi Mordhorst 2019

I look up at the moon and think, "Humans have been there."  It's so astonishing to my adult mind I can hardly even believe it happened.  And of course I think, "How cool!" which leads directly to the thought "How hot!" it is today, and I wonder why we aren't using our astonishing powers of imagination and technology to solve the climate crisis.  JFK said, "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and to do those other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."  Let's choose a new hard goal; here's a fascinating article about how that might work (link below).

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/climate/moon-shot-climate-change.html?login=google

And now here's some serious musical amusement to carry us forward in our considerations about tomorrow.  Our round-up today is hosted by Carol at Carol's Corner.

********************************************************************************

The Police - Walking on The Moon, 1979

Giant steps are what you take
Walking on the moon
I hope my legs don't break
Walking on the moon
We could walk forever
Walking on the moon
We could live together
Walking on, walking on the moon

Walking back from your house
Walking on the moon
Walking back from your house
Walking on the moon
Feet they hardly touch the ground
Walking on the moon
My feet don't hardly make no sound
Walking on, walking on the moon

Some may say
I'm wishing my days away
No way
And if it's the price I pay
Some say
Tomorrow's another day
You stay
I may as well play

Giant steps are what you take
Walking on the moon
I hope my legs don't break
Walking on the moon
We could walk forever
Walking on the moon
We could be together
Walking on, walking on the moon

Keep it up, keep it up

**************************************


Smashmouth - "Walkin' On The Sun" 1997

It ain't no joke I'd like to buy the world a toke
And teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
And teach the world to snuff 

the fires and the liars
Hey I know it's just a song 

but it's spice for the recipe

This is a love attack, I know it went out 

but it's back.
It's just like any fad, it retracts before impact
And just like fashion it's a passion 

for the with-it and hip
If you got the goods they'll come and buy it 

just to stay in the clique

[Chorus:]
So don't delay act now supplies are running out
Allow if you're still alive six to eight years to arrive
And if you follow there may be a tomorrow
But if the offer's shunned 

you might as well be walkin' on the sun

Twenty-five years ago they spoke out and they broke out
Of recession and oppression and together they toked
And they folked out with guitars around a bonfire
Just singin' and clappin' man what the hell happened
Then some were spellbound some were hellbound
Some they fell down and some got back up and
Fought back 'gainst the melt down
And their kids were hippie chicks, all hypocrites
Because fashion is smashin' the true meaning of it

[Repeat Chorus]

It ain't no joke when a mama's handkerchief is soaked
With her tears because her baby's life has been revoked
The bond is broke up so choke up and focus on the close up
Mr. Wizard can't perform no godlike hocus-pocus
So don't sit back, kick back and watch the world get bushwhacked
News at 10:00 your neighborhood is under attack
Put away the crack before the crack puts you away
You need to be there when your baby's old enough to relate

[Repeat Chorus]

You might as well be walkin' on the sun
You might as well be walkin' on the sun
You might as well be walkin' on the sun
You might as well be walkin' on the sun

a very practical "poem"

No, it's not really poetry, this postcard-sized flyer that I plan to print and carry at the ready when overwhelmed people of good faith ask what they can actually DO.


But the world you walk through today
with its nearby honeybees
and faraway flooding
with its close-up calamity
and its distant river dolphins,

this world today is your poem
to read and recite
to memorize and mourn
to fold into the palm of your hand
which unfolds you
         cootiecatcherfortuneteller
to move beyond speaking.

I say it aloud
to help me move
myself
todayrightnow
with urgency, patience
because change
is challenging us.

instadraft ©Heidi Mordhorst 2019



Today's Poetry Friday host is Jone at Deowriter, where she shares a very fortunate Poem Swap gift from Tabatha and where we can choose to open all kinds of poetry surprises.

born this way

http://www.faireconomy.org/3_principles_for_a_better_tax_system

I'm sure I'm not the only teacher in the Poetry Friday community who takes time in the summer to DIG OUT.  The persistent pressures of classroom life always have me triaging my way through the school year ("What must be done immediately or tomorrow?  What important pieces of paper can be thrown in this tray/folder/pile which I promise I will come back to as soon as I get more than a moment?")

Summer brings that more-than-a-moment, by which time I have forgotten what I put in this tray/folder/pile.  Luckily, much of it is now expired/moot/replaced and can be tossed directly into the recycling! I'm not sure this is the ideal way of dealing with paperwork, but there is a kind of relief in realizing that it's too late now to address quite a few things that seemed pressing a few months ago.

So here in a faded green folder are papers which were saved from my grandmother's things after her death at 95 in 2004, and which were in turn rescued from my parents' recent move into a very downsized cottage.  They are a mix of letters received by my grandmother from relatives of the 19th century, missives from my mother as a young mother to my grandmother, from me and my brother from summer camp to home in the 70's.

And here!  Original copies of poems written by Heidi as a child!  Here is the first poem I remember intentionally writing As A Poet, I think in 2nd grade.  This is a copy rewritten by a later Heidi with more developed cursive and no doubt a vision of her own poetry collection:

This list of wishes, dated Fall 1973, shows the heavy influence of all my reading and learning about Native American Indian history and culture.  Probably 90% of that information was incorrect or, at best, approximate (much came from the fictionalized facts of the Childhood of Famous Americans series), but what I did understand is that what we now call indigenous peoples lived on the land in a respectful harmony with its resources.

 Kind of fascinating, right?  The power of that fantasy was intense throughout my middle childhood.

And here--I am 11--is more evidence that my recent conversion to vociferous climate activist is really just a continuation of lifelong concerns.  😊

Perhaps you too were born this way.  (Perhaps ALL children are born with an innate understanding of our physical connection to the Earth; is that why we all will eat dirt given half a chance?)  Perhaps we all were born this way, and then the culture of achievement and consumption misled us, made us forget that knowing how to get tomatoes from nothing but seeds, rain and dirt might ultimately be more important than how to efficiently Google "vintage editions 1964 Childhood of Famous Americans."

In my searching this morning I came across this quote from Sitting Bull, "Dakota Boy."

It has become very very difficult to judge what is enough.  (Which makes it very very hard to tell if we ourselves are enough.)  So as I dig out and sift through this summer, I'm asking: does this thing I have always done, that I was sure I wanted to do, this object that I hang on to, still make sense right now?  Or can I let go, do with the less that is enough?

Our Poetry Friday host this week is Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect, where she and her Poetry Sisters are ringing us with triolets.  Isn't it nice that we can get there without too many CO2 emissions?