Climate Change Poem 7

Sun eclipsed by clouds, January 2006

Two global events are occurring on September 24, 2011:

1. Moving Planet, a worldwide rally to demand solutions to the climate crisis.


2. 100 Thousand Poets for Change, a demonstration/celebration of poetry to promote serious social, environmental, and political change.


I thought: Why not do both?

Barring an emergency, I am posting from midnight to midnight, one poem per hour (at any time during that hour). That's starting from 00:00-01:00 and ending at 23:00-24:00 Eastern Time today.

All the poems are sonnets. Each takes its cue from an article dealing with climate change. The articles had been posted beginning on September 15 -- the date of the 24-hour Climate Reality Project that inspired me to do this -- to September 19, the day I drafted the twenty-fourth poem.


The poem for Hour 7 takes its cue from "Positive mental health key to tackling rural climate change" (Aysha Fleming, tck tck tck, Sept. 15, 2011).

Pressed

A farmer's life is often on the brink.
The vagaries of weather rule each day,
And whether mercury will rise or sink
Determines how much food is stored away.

Australia's science agency reports
Wine growers in that country are at risk.
Drought, fears, economy -- it's hard to sort
What's true from false, and what might someday whisk

Their livelihood away. In rural land
One suicide a week may well occur.
The hardships one has often grown to stand
Can crack a soul with extra to endure

When stresses multiply in changing clime
And mental health diminishes with time.

Audio (1:13):

Part of the Solution website (chosen at random)
Climate CoLab, a project of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks.

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