Earth Day – Last Will and Testament – Dave Burnham

Posted on by Opher

Today is Earth Day

The Will

This is the Last Will and Testament

Of Planet Earth

This is my inheritance

For what it’s worth

To the warmongers

Tyrants and kings

I bestow you medals

For your arrows and slings

Deep underground

In your bunkered prisons

Too late in the day

For your newfound wisdom

To the industrialists and politicians

Obsessed with growth

Who’ve knowingly broken

Many a pledge and troth

I bequeath you status

And unlimited power

Surveying devastation

From your ivory towers

To the billionaires

In your capsules in space

I leave the diamonds

You tore from my face

The things you deem precious

All my silver and gold

For you to count

As you grow old

To the descendants

Of those I first bore

Who bred and swarmed

In the pursuit of more

I leave you the memory

Of what you once had

Before you tarred my skin

And those you thought mad

Had YOU had the Will

To change your course

I would live still

To be your source

Signed by Planet Earth:

at the eleventh hour

Witnessed by:

Every environmental organisation and activist ever to exist

Thanks to Dave Burnham for this great piece!

Poetry – Every Day Should be Earth Day

Posted on by Opher

Every Day Should be Earth Day

Arcing through space

On a huge ball of molten rock

Whose surface has set into a thin crust,

Under which is a superheated liquid magma.

In the atmosphere

Of a star, a sphere,

A raging torrent of nuclear fusion and fission.

Bombarded with energy

Heat, light, UV and gamma,

Protected by a delicate magnetic field

And thin band of oxygenated atmosphere.

Based on the water gleaned

From crashing comets,

From organic molecules

Incredibly created spontaneously

Through that bombardment of energy.

Evolving through billions of years

To reach this amazing point in time

When we are able to appreciate

The wonder of our own astounding existence.

Today is a day to consider our place in the vast Milky Way

The fact that we can stand here

And question the universe,

To be alive and able to think, feel and experience,

For every day is really Earth Day.

Opher – 22.4.2020

Once the planet was huge and travel took forever. Once human beings were dispersed in bands of hunter gatherers. Once our numbers were small and our impact tiny.

They used to believe the world and its resources were infinity. They slaughtered animals with impunity.

They used to believe that the forest were so vast we could chop them down forever and never reach the end.

Now our numbers are immense, our impact is enormous, the forest and animals are dwindling fast.

Unless we take decisive action we will lose the whole world.

What a sad state of affairs!

Every day should be Earth Day. Compassionate people should fight for the future!