It was great to see the Bull seals with their hareems emerging from the mist while lazing on the rocks.
Seals on the Farne Islands
A few sheep and lambs from the Lake District
The Desolate Beauty of Langdale in the Lake District
As Darkness Descends – a poem
As Darkness Descends
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As darkness descends,
Bound for perpetual night,
Eight billion groans, moans and laughs
Adorn its progress.
Obliviously distracted
And living in denial
As the concrete and mud
Steal the very breath
In a slow motion crash
Equipped with no brake or airbag;
Flicking through,
Chortling
At the frivolous,
As the life
Is squeezed
Out of the land.
Opher – 8.4.2018
Why aren’t there any birds? A poem
Why aren’t there any birds?
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Why aren’t there any birds? She asked,
Slapping the fly that had landed on her arm.
Why aren’t the trees all full of sweet song in the mornings?
As she festooned the ant’s nest with powder.
I miss the sweet trill of birds, she reflected
As she sprayed herself with mosquito repellant.
Birds are so beautiful. I am so sad they are all gone,
As she doused the vegetables with insecticide.
I miss their trill and colour, she said sadly
As the electric zapper sparked and a singed body fell.
Oh! She cried
A poor butterfly
As the brightly coloured wings smouldered.
Opher – 3.5.2018
Dan Brown – Inferno
I had to have a tooth out yesterday – unexpectedly. It hurt like mad.
I finished reading Dan Brown’s Inferno yesterday. I really enjoyed it. I find Dan Brown quite a gripping light read. It’s a bit contrived and daft but it is a page turner and it draws you in. Once I start I can’t put it down. I like books like that occasionally.
Inferno is concerned with the gross madness of the population explosion. It is a sickness that is destroying the natural world. Nowhere is untouched.
The book was a mystery solution to the problem that is presently destroying the planet and sending the rest of life hurtling towards extinction – how to get our numbers under control and leave room for the rest of the wonders of life that has evolved on this green gem.
My tooth and that book sent me into writing a string of poems – which I have just published here on my blog. I realised after I had written them out and put them out that they are really all just one poem.
Never mind. I will graft them together in my next poetry book.
I write poems for the wonders of nature that we might protect and nurture it and put a halt to this mad destruction that we are waging. I think there is a war going on. It is a war between the rich and the poor. It is a war that creates a relentless stupid striving for growth and profit at all costs. It is costing us our souls and the earth.
It takes Billions – A poem
It Takes Billions
Billions – it takes billions.
5 Billion to evolve
8 Billion to destroy
How many Billion to put right?
Billions – it takes Billions.
First you have to wake right up.
First you have to realise.
First you have to value it.
First you want to try.
Billions – it takes billions.
5 Billion to evolve
8 Billion to destroy
How many Billion to put right?
Billions – it takes Billions.
If 8 Billion were to become 4
There wouldn’t be a problem
Any more.
Opher 13.4.2018
The Past is Gone – There is no time – A Poem
There is no time
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Amid the anguish and the blame
Amid the anger and the shame
Between the laughter and the fun
Between the torture and the pun
There is no time.
The time when antelopes ran free
The time when gorillas had trees
The time when elephants had room
The time when whales were not doomed
Has past and gone.
What is gone cannot come back
What is past is history
When time runs out
There is no room
When room runs out there is no space
For even mystery.
Opher 13.4.2018
There’s no room – a poem
There’s no room
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Pruned trees in rows
Furrows in rows
Houses in rows
Brows in furrows
There’s no room.
Pesticide clouds
Smoke clouds
Particle clouds
Mushroom clouds
Clouds in shrouds
There’s no room.
Weeds eradicated
Pest eradicated
Vermin eradicated
Eradicate the fate
There’s no room.
Opher 13.4.2018
8 Billion Reasons – a poem
