This page is for poems by any author on the theme of sustainability. If you would like to send one to be considered, please email it to: poetliz @mac .com
Thank you to all the poets concerned about sustainability that have sent us their wonderful poems!
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Small Questions to Save the World
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Was it made here?
Or was it flown in?
Will I use this again?
Or will it go in the bin?
Will this recycle?
Am I wasting food?
Can I mend this instead
of buying one new?
Can I walk to school
and get fit and trim?
Does it need plastic wrap?
Does it have palm oil in?
Can I give this away
when I’ve finished with it?
Or make something else
if I take it to bits?
Shall we make it at home
rather than carry-out?
Do I need it or want it?
Can I do without?
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© Liz Brownlee
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Three Goodbyes?
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1
I am moving very, very slowly
Down the valleys of my mother’s face
And when I’ve exhausted
My salt-less tears
The world will be
A very different place
2
I am hot and humid
I smell of life, and of decay
I sing a million songs
I dance, I play
A thousand different children
call me home
I’m getting smaller every day
3
I am the fastest on the land
But where I live, the living’s tough
You may think that I
can circumvent the truth
But the truth is
I’m not fast enough
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© Roger Stevens
A glacier is a huge accumulation of compacted snow, found near the poles or on a mountainside, where it flows very slowly towards the sea. Most of the world’s glaciers are melting and shrinking as our climate warms up, which is causing sea levels to rise and affects the weather. 2. Rainforests produce oxygen, medicines and are home to more than half the world’s animal species. Organisations such as The Forest Alliance are working hard to save and repair them. 3. Cheetahs, like many animals, are in danger of extinction.
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Dream
I dream
of lavender-scented streets
and amber sunsets
I dream
of beehives humming
high on the tops of tower-blocks
I dream
of power-lines
alive with wind
I dream
of green gardens
and golden fields
I dream
of deep wells
flowing with clean water
I dream
of laughter and smiles,
hands across oceans
I dream
of the whole wide world
in bloom
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© Matt Goodfellow
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For the Beauty of the Earth – Rachel Carson
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She wrote with love
of all creation,
the need for nature
conservation,
and showed that
nature is a ring,
relying on every
living thing,
the foxglove
where the bee is heard,
the glittering bug
that feeds the bird,
the beetles that
break down the dung
so cows can graze
where grass has sprung.
The spraying of pests,
Rachel foresaw,
would kill their
predators and more.
Imagine this –
a silent spring
no creature stirs,
and no birds sing.
The bees don’t buzz
no flowers thrive,
she warned that
those bugs left alive
after spraying
by poison war,
would be much stronger
than before,
weevils, woodworm,
caterpillars,
needing much
more toxic killers.
Rachel Carson,
scientist,
the world’s first
environmentalist.
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© Liz Brownlee
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Rachel Carson was born in 1907 in America. She earned a Masters degree in Zoology from John Hopkins University, and then worked for what is now the Fish and Wildlife Service. She wrote a ground-breaking book of factual stories about the lives of marine creatures, using their scientific names. Her second book became a best seller. She went on to write ‘Silent Spring’, an extraordinarily forward-thinking book about the dangers of poisoning insects and crops – it, too, was a best seller, and helped get DDT banned. Her writing sparked the beginning of the environmental movement.
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The Bee
Oh fuzzy little ginger one,
From morning light ‘til day is done
My garden is your pleasure.
No bloom too large, no blossom small,
You gladly pay respect to all
To gather golden treasure.
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© Doda Smith
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These Days
Where a landscape bloomed,
an economy booms.
Where woods stood tall,
a city rises.
Where wildflowers whispered,
a motorway roars.
Where the river ebbed and flowed,
a supermarket surges.
Where animals ran,
plastic-wrapped meat reads
Best Before…
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© Shauna Darling Robertson
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A Panda Ponders
There are shoots that are glossy, and shoots that are rough,
Shoots that are tender, and shoots that are tough,
But there’s one kind of shoot I can never have enough
Bamboo
To chew.
There are shoots that you crunch, and shoots that you gnaw
Shoots you have to tug and grasp at with your paw.
Some that stick to your teeth and clog up your jaw.
But Bamboo?
I just chew.
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© Doda Smith
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bethechange 