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Thursday 21 September 2017

A Lament of Water

A few years ago at St Leonard's church Assisi, I met an international water consultant. we had a fascinating conversation about the sheer waste of water in supply systems across the world - a situation that the Italian-based engineer advises on with a view to finding remedies. The volume of wasted water he described points to unbelievable levels of negligence, which I have tried to reflect in the following poem, which my engineer friend has checked for accuracy - and for that, I am most grateful. There are also major international questions as to who ‘owns’ water - but that’s another major topic for another time!
A Lament of Water
You seek me on far distant planets,
knowing I signal life.
Yet you who need me abuse me,
In hideous measure
Through ill-tended pipes.

At least one third of me, treated,
ensuring I'm drinkably pure,
is lost as I pass, through the mains, to a tap;
‘tis profligate! That's to be sure.

So whilst others struggle collecting
me, trekking to worrying source,
you have no concern for what you can't see,
that from stricken  pipeworks
I constantly burst.




Wednesday 13 September 2017

Paradise Island Dreams

‘Moonglow’ CGI by the author

Darkness stretches to the horizon,
speckled grey reflects a struggling moon;
close to my invisible feet
a gravelly surge tells me soon
the waves will undermine
the tiny promontory where I stand;
steady for now but in only minutes
my dreamer’s knoll will be engulfed 
in the unpredictably shifting sand.

I will stay, I will stay for a while
transfixed by the infinite
rhythm of the waves.
Tonight the ocean’s gentle swell
masks the latent violence
that makes it the realm of innumerable graves.

Transient glints from the downcast sky
cause me to reflect;
there, beyond my constrained eye
and my pedestrian imagining
are deep trenches, 
mighty sub-surface mountains,
scintillating reefs;
mortuaries - millions of shells, no longer in use:
slithering predators, giving no relief 
to myriads of fish of dizzily entrancing hues.

And in the deeper, deeper waters
sinister gyres
where we, ultimate predators,
ultimate polluters 
cast plastic, glass and toxic refuse
unthinkingly
from boats, shorelines, rivers and streams
adding to the natural death toll:
so rapidly, all too rapidly
we poison everyone’s
paradise island dreams.

Tuesday 5 September 2017

Extending the Life of the Planet: Yes We Can!




Helped by science, we’ve reduced the dangerous ozone hole;
Countries are, with foresight, turning down their coal;
there are otters, fish and wildfowl in rivers once deemed dead;
we’re more concerned when species’ lives hang dangling on a thread.

So with some careful measures and a will to rearrange,
we can stop the planet heading for a dangerous climate change;
and each of us can contribute by thinking day-by-day
of switching off, recycling waste and throwing less away.

Below, rainbow cards of this poem  to print out for circulation at appropriate events. May I encourage you to distribute them as widely as you can. They focus on achievement andthe positive and may, therefore, have an impact that will be greater than some more forceful messages!