The Alphabet of Life – A Poem.

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The Alphabet of Life

 

Each letter, each word,

Each sentence, paragraph and chapter

Is precious.

 

Any loss leaves a hole

In the telling of our tale.

We become as impoverished

As empty

As the blank pages

We create.

 

What profiteth a man

When he has gained

The whole sterile globe

But lost

More than he will ever know?

 

Opher 25.6.2018

 

 

The Alphabet of Life

 

I was thinking about the incredible DNA molecule that spells out the alphabet of life. Back in the beginning that first amazing molecule started the ball rolling. We have all descended from that. We are all related. Every single cell of life is wondrous, precious and miraculous.

 

Yet we are destroying life at an increasing rate, driving species after unique species into extinction. Yet every single species is precious.

 

We should certainly respect it more!!

Every Stroke Kills – A poem

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Every Stroke Kills

 

In the wake of every stroke

Lies the ruins of many lives.

In the wake of every gouge

Lies a community destroyed.

Letter by letter

The epic story is untold.

Letter by letter

The greatest story is unwritten

Until the blank pages

Tell a different tale

Of what once was and is no more.

 

25.6.2018

 

 

Every Stroke Kills

 

We do not value the incredible miracle of life on this planet. We may be unique in this most enormous universe. Every single form of life may be utterly unique – every single cell the most amazing miracle. The utter improbability of life means that we should cherish every single cell.

 

Yet we treat life with such disdain. Insects, animals and plants are destroyed without thought. Every tree houses a community. Every stream and wood provides a million homes.

 

We chop down the trees and gouge up the soil without thought to the communities we destroy.

Big Green Ball

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While I was driving around the country I had plenty of time to think. What we are doing to the planet, the loss of so many species, the ravaging of our rainforests, the overpopulation – it all drives me mad.

The Big Green Ball

 

Big green ball

To kick around

It’s just a game

 

Too soon and gone

The wear and tear

Such a shame

 

Opher 25.6.2018

Welcome!! – Friends from all around the world!!

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Welcome!! – Friends from all around the world!!

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Thank you all for supporting my blog!!

We are all one – in one brotherhood/sisterhood! Building a new world where all people regardless of race, creed or gender are equally important.

This is a community that values cooperation, tolerance and freedom above selfish greed and oppression.

This is a community that values nature and opposes the destruction of the environment. We do not want trees chopped down, animals killed and the wilderness destroyed.

This is a community that believes overpopulation is the biggest threat to the future of mankind and the environment.

Thank you for sticking with me!!

I know I’m cantankerous. You won’t like everything I say. But I have to say it how I think it. There is no choice.

What you see is what you get. You know where you stand.

I appreciate your support for what I am doing! Thanks for the Likes and thanks for the follows – they make it all worthwhile!!

Let’s build a positive, global zeitgeist!!

Thousands of us can’t be wrong!!!

Planet Earth – a poem.

Posted on by Opher

Planet Earth

 

It is the thirteenth of June 2018

On a warm summer’s day that I have spent writing and reading.

It was a pleasant day.

Yet there were no swifts in the sky this afternoon.

I am sorry for that.

My garden is full of flowers and the grass is mown

But there is no room for nature.

I am sorry for that too.

What are we doing to you?

How can you bear it?

As we dig and chop,

Fence and rip,

Sterilize and sanitize.

Is this what you want?

That we should tame and reduce?

Tie you in knots?

And reduce your complexity

To our simplicity?

How long will you put up with it?

Mother earth

Are you powerless?

Planet earth can you hear me?

I am talking to you.

You gave me so much

And I value it all.

But you are becoming less and less by the day.

How can you bear to see so much destroyed?

So many creatures killed?

So much cruelty and pain?

Planet earth

Is it alright if we cause you to bleed like this?

Planet earth

You’ve given me a full life

Laden with stars, sunsets and rainbows

Rocks, trees and seas,

Creatures of all kinds,

Plants and wonders

Always wonders –

How can I repay you?

You’ve been my home for 69 years –

An endless time of love and change.

All I can do

Is say thank you.

I am so sorry.

 

Opher 13.6.2018

I wrote this with a nod to Allen Ginsberg.

One fifth of all British mammals now on the endangered list!

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One fifth of all mammals in Britain are now highly likely to become extinct. This includes the wildcat, mouse-eared bats, water voles, red squirrels, otters and wild boar.

Other species are suffering great reductions in populations – such as the hedgehog.

The problem is habitat reduction, a lack of wild areas, loss of hedgerows, the use of pesticides killing off insects which they feed off, and pollution.

As our population increases, more roads and houses are built and more intensive farming takes place our wildlife is being squeezed out of existence.

It is not just mammals – birds, amphibia, reptiles and invertebrates are suffering as well. Butterfly populations are reducing, honeybees numbers are diving, great crested newts are extremely rare and you don’t see the numbers of swifts, swallows and house martins that you used to.

I think we are sleepwalking into the destruction of nature.

The Yorkshire Dales – Near Malham

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We drove over to Ingleborough in order to check out some of the family background.

A lot of my family on my mother’s mother’s side come from round Ingleton. My grandmother left home at the age of fourteen after her mother died and her father remarried. The story is that she did not get on with her stepmother who was too religious and strict. She then got involved with a fairground boxer, ran away with him and got pregnant. Checking out family history has its fun side but it largely  meant heading round a lot of churches and graveyards.

We started off at the wonderful Malham tarn.

Wildlife around Sorrento

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I spent my youth in fields, up trees, in ditches and ponds collecting caterpillars, frogs, newts, lizards, toads, snakes and slowworms. I loved nature.

I find it distressing to see the streams all clear of darting sticklebacks with fiery red stomachs and not to find a hundred grasshoppers flying out with every step. The ponds are no longer festooned with frogspawn in spring and the numbers of swifts and swallows are rocketing down. Squashed hedgehogs used to be a daily sight. There are few around now.

What are we doing?

I never saw a swallowtail in England but in the hills around Sorrento there were hundreds of them. It was difficult to get a shot because they were so lively.

I love the European common lizard they are so green. They were all over the place.

There were a lot of invertebrates too. Without them the other creatures have nothing to feed on.

These bright green frogs were mating in a pond at Herculaneum and making a hell of a noise as they croaked and splashed. In England they’ve mainly just croaked.

Flowers and plants near Sorrento

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Herbicides have certainly taken their toll on our own wild flowers. The flower-laden meadows and hedgerows are nowhere near as colourful or full of insects as they used to be.

I noticed it in Devon and the Lake District which are largely dairy areas so do not get sprayed so much with herbicides and pesticides. There are many more insects and the verges are more colourful.

It seems that the councils are becoming more aware of conservation needs – probably as a result of the loss of our honey bees (absolutely unbelievably disastrous). They are leaving the verges unmown. It allows the plants to grow providing habitat for insects and animals. What a great idea. These verges also provide corridors for wildlife. I applaud it.

In Italy it was a pleasure to walk out in the countryside and see the profusion of wild plants and insects. Wonderful. I loved the colour and scents and the buzz of life they produced.

A Few Owls!!

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I don’t quite know what I think to these displays of owls and other birds. It is good that kids get to see and love the magnificent creatures but I don’t like them being in captivity. Animals should live in the wild. Soon the only creatures we’ll see are those in zoos.

These owls were magnificent though.