The Significant League (TSL) and Different Truths (DT) together offer an Anthology on World Environment Day (WED), 59 poems, one be each poet, showcasing deep concern against degradation of our environment. It’s our joint salutation to Mother Earth, which has nurtured us for eons. All this while we abused nature, cut down forests and killed animals. It needs to be looked after. We hope that Man, educated and civilised, shall put an end to the mindless brutality unleashed on nature and take a step forward with the WED 2016 theme, ‘Go Wild for Life,’ caring for the fauna. Killing animals is the first step to destroy forests. The Jungle Mafia is involved in the annihilation of the wild animals and destruction of forests world over. This anthology of TSL has been put together and edited by four eminent poets, Dr. Ampat V. Koshy, Niladri Ranjit Chakraborty, Ritamvara Bhattacharya and Gowri Suresh. TSL and DT extend their wishes to one and all on WED. The three young editors have given a fresh outlook to this anthology. While Niladri struck the keynote, Ritamvara wedded the concept of ecofeminism with the environment. This anthology is part of the special feature on WED by Different Truths.
It was announced during mid-May to the members of The Significant League (TSL) that Different Truths (DT), a glorious space for upcoming and seasoned writers to share their flair, was looking forward to initiating a project with us. Upon receiving the news, vivid minds sharpened their pencils and inked their pens of creativity. Well-endowed with different ideas themed around the environment and the significance of saving it, they offered us their best verses. Fifty-nine poets from all around the world congregated for this purpose and voiced their thoughts through the wizardry of words. In all the poems, one can trace out a subtle trail of rebellion: a resistance against the injustice we see every day. The poets believe this injustice can be put to a halt only if we transform our intentions into actions. Who would want their progeny to suffer the sins of the past? To make the world a better place, these 59 poems coalesce into one message – a message to Man, upon whose shoulders lie the fate of His future. The purpose of the World Environment Day (WED) Anthology is to develop a conscience, an awareness about the reality we dwell in. The world is a beautiful place, but we must not let its beauty wither and crumble to the whims of evil ‘advancements’ we call boons. Even a small contribution matters. Here we present a ‘small’ contribution to the noble cause by the great DT-TSL family. We truly hope that, as in all our previous endeavours, in this project also we may find our triumph. What was once a dream of seeing a better world, must now become a reality! Each poem is a labour of love, standing apart in a way of its own.
Cheers!
Niladri Ranjit Chakraborty
***
I am so glad to be a part of the project, which concerns Environment. Ecofeminism is my area of research. What is it?
‘Ecofeminism’ was developed as a concept in 1970s. There have been arguably major policy shifts in the fields of gender (in)equality and environmental sustainability. Thus, a consideration of the achievements of and work, outstanding, for ecological feminism is warranted. It is an interdisciplinary movement that calls for a new way of thinking about nature, politics, and spirituality. Ecofeminist theory questions or rejects previously held patriarchal paradigms and holds that the domination of women by men is intimately linked to the destruction of the environment. Ecofeminism in literature started in 19th century in English and American Literature. For many nineteenth-century women, the sense of place was an important aspect of their writing and many wrote about the local landscape that was often an integral part of their daily life. One of the best-known writers who made the place a central element in her fiction was the American novelist Sarah Orne Jewett. The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), for example, is set in the fictional town of Dunnett Landing on the coast of Maine, and the action of the novel revolves around the town and surrounding islands.
Having said that I believe that if the environment as a part of ecology is considered to be a woman’s body and if mapped as a progeny of creation we ought to save her, we ought to listen to her wails instead of just romanticizing with the longing to flee to be one with nature. The earth is seen as the sustainer of human life and relationships, and the fragile boundary between nature and humanity is emphasized. The literature concerned with the environment should weave together concerns about ordinary life and explore questions of community, gender, domination, and exploitation.
Different Truths, and Ampat Koshy Sir, has taken this venture to bring out our concern for the environment in terms of literature. I, as a part of the editorial team, was privileged to have read some true work akin to the environmental crisis. Please do read the poems and we sincerely wish that the environment is less ripped off and we stop our nude exploitation to safeguard creation.
Thanking you,
Ritamvara Bhattacharya
***
The Significant League has brought out The Significant Anthology, which was for peace and harmony amongst all nations, religions, peoples, races, parties and sexuality, not to mention varying ideologies and was for autism and also held the Reuel Prizes for excellence in writing and literature for three years has concentrated with the help of Different Truths that has given us a platform on bringing out mini-anthologies on limericks, on autism again, on bonded labour and this time on the environment, ecology and its preservation, sustainability coinciding on purpose with the World Environment Day, etc. The work was spearheaded by three young editors and is a labour of love that as usual stands for very high quality as the 59 poems are from writers, who really care for their art and causes like this.
Thanks to Different Truths, meaning Arindam Roy and Anumita Chatterjee Roy, and on a personal note to Niladri Ranjit Chakraborty, Ritamvara Bhattacharya and Gowri Suresh – well done, indeed! Thanks most of all to all our poets and readers, as without you this would not be possible.
Read and enjoy.
Dr Koshy AV
Editors: Niladri Ranjit Chakraborty, Ritamvara Bhattacharya, Gowri Suresh and Ampat V. Koshy
1. Mother
Imagine the earth as a mother –
A woman who nurtures and
protects as her own progeny
ravages her once beautiful
curves and leaves her bare
and barren to feed itself, and
yet she gives, again and again
notwithstanding her fits of anger
as she looks at herself and weeps
for what she used to be, but she
stops, and remembers that she
took the burden of creation and
destruction onto herself, willingly.
But did you ever sit next to her
and stroke her arm lovingly? Did
you ever hold her and whisper to
her that she’s strong, so strong, and
brave, and beautiful beyond what
even she could perceive? I did, and
I asked her where she hurt, where
she throbbed, and where the bruises
lay. She crumbled into my arms and
whipped off the layers of civility
covering her, to expose her broken,
beaten centre, a heart that bled as
her children killed each other, and
she sobbed, “it aches everywhere.”
©Harnidh Kaur
2. Tears of Earth
How could the karma of one generation
Affect only the next generation
Rivers that were once pure and full of life
Now flowing with sewage with the approval of the government
The lofty mountains that once got greener with our gathered longings
Are ripped off trees and weeping in choked voices
Forests are silenced by the cut trees and look like the wrath of Gods
A seed of hope immersed in the water of expectations
Blooms the petals of joys in white
By the mercy of the sun from a distant horizon
The silver clouds turning black to revive this earth
Fragrance stirred breeze, nectar filled flowers, busy bees and beautiful butterflies
All are grateful to mother earth except human beings
They are careless and ignorant, adamant and greedy
Selfish and unconcerned
Destroying mother nature and destabilising lives
Pollution, congestion, urbanisation, unwanted population explosion
Causing nature to suffer
Looting and attacking her mercilessly
Our ancestors thought of the many generations ahead
Planted trees, preserved water, kept the air clean
We don’t even want to think about our children
What are we going to leave for them
Drought hit lands, a concrete jungle of skyscrapers
Oil spilled oceans with tainted seaweed and blackened tides
Live in accordance to Nature and enjoy her bountiful boons
Or provoke her with pollution and face the consequences of tsunamis, earthquakes, famines and furious volcanoes
It’s an emergency to learn the lesson soon
And stop digging, ripping and killing
Wipe the teardrops falling on the future’s page
Douse the fire today that causes mother nature’s rage!
©Sreemathi Ravi
3. Interconnected
I
The same dust
of the forefathers,
is there beneath your feet.
Sacred is the soil,
with their ashen-remains:
as of your near and dear ones.
II
O dear ye all!
This web,
all but one.
Any hurt caused to anyone
but surfaces in everyone,
since all life is one.
A spit on the earth
as much upon you falls
as it does on your ancestors.
III
So interconnected are we all:
death of even one tree
augurs death of the forest.
A warp snapped somewhere,
is going to affect the web entire,
since a common thread through all runs.
A rupture showing up at one spot,
eventually shall rupture
the rhythm entire.
©‘Yayati’ Madan Gandhi
4. More
Environment is crucial
Pollution is everywhere
Air and oceans are sick
Forests are dying
Deserts are spreading
Still capitalism wants More:
More coal, More gas,
More oil, More wars,
More lives to exploit,
More money, More acquisitions
The shade of Dickens
Is in turmoil, should have
Extended his copyright on ‘More’
A lifetime is too short
More destructions, More rules
More controls, More police,
More prisons, More torture
There seems no limitation to more
But how long is Earth going to take more?
©Lucette C. Bailliet
5. Ode to Mother
O Thou Mother,
You have kept us green,
How, beautifully, since
Our origin, from mere cells,
In waters thine, floating,
Amoebic, little lives,
Nourished from you,
And the shine, those dews,
Of that Holy Light, Zeus,
And whence once,
One June or July or August,
Monsoon upon us,
We go on a tour,
Wanderer we, the souls,
How we got the chance,
To be merged in your beauty,
Green as it appeared, Your Piety,
Lotus pond, filled with aroma,
Of love and wonders,
How I tried to capture
Thy love, thy eternal vast,
Shaded by trees, our wanderlust,
How turned photographic,
How we to thy refuge, we the meek,
So many years after,
Praising beauty Thine,
Your day, earthly, divine,
How again I go back,
To see, Thou, upon a revisit, not off-track,
Your perpetuity, our reclusive meet,
How, again go walking down memory street,
How again I go loving you, Mother,
Seeing you, clicking pictures, preserving,
All that us to your soft bosom happily bring.
©Moinak Dutta
6. God’s Wrath
Beware God’s wrath,
Man.
Had He created only trees
Had each one of you
Humans
Been a tree
A bush
Grass
The world would have been
Glowing with beauty
Heady scents flowing
With sparkling diamonds
Of rivers
Fearlessly the birds and animals
Would have frolicking sung
Melodies
Sweeter than honey
Colours and hues
Would have attracted
Fairies and angels
From heaven
Who would have yearned
To make it their abode
And invited God
To feast in His
Mesmerising home.
But alas!
You have devastated it
Continuing
To ruin it
With baseless fears
Unwanted greed and jealousy.
Stop it.
Stop. Stop it!
©Himali Narang
7. A Floetry: Mother Earth’s on the Rag
Contrails, save the whales, acid rain and more miniature cells, millions dying in the Congo for a metal or mineral so you can connect with some psycho on your Dick Tracy wrist iPhone while Mother Earth moans.
You’ve become Her cancer in your greed, hope your fire insurance’s paid up with GOD when She starts to bleed while you masturbate Her templates and She starts to heave against Her wishes as you rape Her viciously and in Her defense She pleads… Momentary Insanity.
©Black Chalk (Maurice Higgs)
8. Brave New World
God had taken a summer break
Left me to mind the job
I decided, what the heck,
I could rebuild the orb
The seventh planet from the Sun
Needed an overhaul
I thought it would be good fun
To set rolling the ball
I checked the forests, mountains, seas
And thought they would all do
I spied the birds, the beasts, the fish
But all were tickety boo
I wondered what should I refine?
Who do I need to shun?
Till I figured, that nature’s fine,
I have to get rid of Man!
©Soumya Mukherjee
9. Stop Right There!
The cool cars that catch the eyes – Oh! Don’t they elevate my status?
Sophisticated buildings with all its amenities,
Don’t they amplify my sophisticated style?
Lavish parties I throw for my friends, luxury with vogue I expect them to offer me as well
Standards I maintain with all that I achieve
My thirsts for powers are all the more that I can cover and limitless
Why should I see if people die, or struggle for their food and basic facilities?
My academic credentials have given me the scope to rise and fulfil my own needs.
Do not lecture me about Earth’s decay and ecosystem,
They are for books and universities to prosper
Do not tell me how I should live a life of kindness,
I donate millions to churches and temples every year.
Ozone layer they say is warming up, resulting in melting of snow and icebergs
They say chopping trees makes the Earth barren and air we breathe… scarce
Oh! For that I shall place some board meetings and blame everyone else
For my actions are certainly not to be questioned, I am above all these probations.
But now I lie on my hospital bed, and doctors say I have a deadly disease
The cause they say is due to pollution from industries,
The very Industries that I own and had flaunted my power and wealth to increase
Oh! Why did I not listen to the morals, the lessons that I studied in my school books?
Why Mother Earth who carries me in Her kind arms, I have burnt Her very charm?
Why did I not see what my actions were doing, while I was busy in making my career bright?
Now I ask my children to foresee, and never make the mistakes I had done
Now I ask all who are like me, “Stop right there! Before your inner self rots and burns.”
©Jolly Bhattacharjee ‘Jhimly’
10. Mother Earth is Moaning
Mother earth is moaning.
The forests are crumbling and tumbling.
The water and air, getting poisoned.
Everything is losing its natural perfection.
Even soil is not an exception.
Awake. Awake, O man!
Let’s all do our very best
To heal her to her pristine beauty charm
Let’s take a vow never to harm
It’s balance all around.
Our mother is being looted and polluted.
Nowhere is she safe.
All her aspects have lost their purity.
Her body is all in wounds and chafe.
Yet the selfish nature of man
Realizes not the hurts it gives
To none other but his own mother,
The source of survival
for all.
Peeling without feeling
Everything that falls to his hands.
His hunger for power and pelf
Drags him away from true self.
Caring not what will ensue,
His greedy plans he does pursue.
Still there is time to realise and return.
Or get ready to die and burn.
©Jaleshwer Jeanwall
11. Annihilation
Eyes gouged out of their sockets, fountains of warm gooey blood
Trickling into pathetic screams, moaning sickly apologies of streams
Water starved, chapped lipped
The scalding plains of the globally warmed world
gasping for life’s breath!
Verdant majestic specimens of magnificence masquerading as trees
Pale versions of their shiny leafy gloss like cheap imitation jewelry
Pretending to be trees!
Dejected branches ashamed to look up, wilting leaves choking on toxic fumes!
The dancing narcissus lame, gagged into submission
Her fragrance thwarted poured into bottles of synthetic abominations
The swaying fields of saffron forgetting the tango
Reed infested lakes battling rape!
Snowy sentinels shimmering shyly dissolving into puddles of tears
Weeping copious bucketful at the melting glaciers glimmering!
Snow leopards, red pandas, the handsome tiger bewildered
Their homes raided, their lives extinguished
Indian bustards vanishing into extinction,
Fast depleting gharials and black bucks, Nilgiri langurs pushed out
Asiatic lion gasping! Wild ass, wild dog, hard to find
Hardly any rhinoceros to count!
Concrete is cruel and heartless
It knows no mercy, it advances ruthlessly into habitats
Hitherto untouched
Oceans vomit sewage as dolphins die
Man lives his selfish existence in air conditioned asthmatic splendor!
May Day! May Day! May Day!
©Lily Swarn
12. Earth Poem
Poems are unearthed when the soil is moved
Some sun, happy sweat and a lot of grime
A bird chirruping away to itself
The scent of a banana flower, freshly watered greens
A few nodding buds, mud under nails, bare feet
Straggling vines, a sprightly sapling new
The comfort of my back against the stout trunk
of a grandfather tree
Ants on their march, snails housed in pots
Choosy, spoilt butterflies
and a profusion of defiant weeds
There is nothing here
that doesn’t hold me captive
The moss covers every crack
Even the faint breeze heals
I wish to lie here, in a flower bed
or under the thick canopy
dotted with yellow Allamandas
hearing a golden oriole flute its song
watching the trees explode with spring
feeling the power, the invincibility of the infinite blue
feeding the first rain drops to my skin
To die in this earth garden
and have only the bees buzz about it
Now that would be poetry
©Reena Prasad
13. I Smile a Beautiful World
It was last summer
cuddly is the sun
in its warmth…
I lay on my tummy
clad in my bikini…
I hear the faint shouting
of the crystalline waves
delighted in floating
the surfers!
A passing breeze whispers,
“in summer time the sun will shine…
in winter, we’ll drink summer wine…
and everyday that you are mine
will be a lovely day”
I smile… smile… ’a dreamy world’
The children’ little laughters
Pigeons gather around me
Waiting for their shares!
‘Soon will be autumn’,
I said loudly unconsciously
Those golden leaves will
Roll flakes of fall
slipping from my hand
dancing down the road
like free school kids
after school time
Ahhhhhhh… I smile a wonderful world!
©Ade Caparas Manilah
14. My Earth
Have you seen me in dust and cry?
I sleep and rise in utmost fry.
People throw me, people harm.
I just watch them
In winter’s charm.
I stand and watch to peel my sweat.
I stoop to cry while people take a bet.
Do watch your love but a few.
The world will stand to quench its due.
©Binay Laha
15. Make Peace, Not War
An olive branch, offered by the creator of all,
Reaching out to those he made to fall:
Crossing the divide they run then stall.
So tell me one time that peace came without war?
Please show me where greed worked pleasure?
All the times brothers fought for birthright,
Remember day fights night for prevalent light.
Kinematically, can waves of man describe a sea?
Obsidian, cooled black of burning hot,
Harbinger of a have-me-not.
How can we ever be at peace, within
Another day that does not cease?
Radiant light turns superficial in our descent,
Knowledge today, a world taught honor is decadence.
Place your faith in your fellows not fellowship,
Another worthless, whorish relationship.
Recompense–payments of suffering paving the way,
Killing each other with the bricks our tongues lay.
Speak with me now brothers and sisters,
Trek with me to a place where difference is art–
Another time and place where we share one heart.
Recoiling, the snake with venom will strike;
Keep with me proverbs with which peace we make.
Designed this universe is in ways misunderstood,
Are our richest not human as those in the hood?
Repent! Stand fast and reach for the branch,
Kraft with me one love as moving as an avalanche!
©Marshall G. Kent Sr.
16. I Wish…
I dream of the forests
That once were
But now are just the charred remains
Of those tall trees.
I wish
To roam in there again
And feel the earth smile
Its greenest smile…
I dream of the rivers of my childhood
Clear and sweet
Where I could see the pebbles at bottom
Now reduced
To a mere sewer
Full of the city’s refuge
I wish it to flow again
Singing those tinkling rhymes
I dream of the crisp air
That I used to breathe
Without ever thinking about
Now full of poison
Filling my lungs with death
I wish to wake up again
With the cool, hilly air
Cooing in my ears and flowing in my blood
I dream of silent spaces
Now full of lewd songs playing loudly
I dream of a lot many things
That we have lost because of our stupidity
I wish
My dream becomes everyone’s dream
And together
We can bring back those days
When there were silent shores
Besides the clean flowing rivers
Through the majestic forests.
©Sunita Jugran
17. The Ungrateful Refugees
Thrown out of Paradise
This was the place
That gave us refuge…
We are on the verge
Of a second fall,
But where shall we go now?
We never learn!
©Shabir Ahmad Mir
18. Give a Thought
A day to give a thought
An end to our own tyrannies
An affirmation, a resolve
As we choose to be
Makers of our own destinies!
The womb of the mother carries
Life blood to all fetuses
It carries conjugated DNA
Lineage of generations gone by
Unearthing our own graves
In the name of history and mystery
Blotching up our own generations
In the name of betterment and productivity
Nuclear once the family chain
Is now a weapon for destruction
Warheads, oil, money and power
Destroying our own habitation
Altering the environment and physiology
In the name game of nutrition and biology
New diseases unearthed, new chemicals on the anvil
Existence of all species on a virtual peril
For once its conformity
The reducing biodiversity
The consequences would be unimaginable
On our own progeny!
©Deepti Singh
19. The Galloping Black Hole
The environment bleeding wounded,
Feeling hounded,
Rapid fire concrete structures,
The altitude of civilized sky scrapers,
The spheres expressing shock and fear,
The black hole galloping the earth near,
Mass felling of trees,
Human orgies on reckless blitz,
The extra heat generated by the Mother Earth,
Struggling livelihood flora and fauna to breathe,
The polar regions melting in heat,
The Himalayas in molten pot,
One fourth of the earth that is available for life to exist,
With extra molten water may cease to exist,
The mad human scientific dreams,
Making the environment sick to scream,.
The aquamarine creatures floating dead on the surface,
The oil spills time and again causing havoc to face,
The bio-sphere in severe stress,
The equilibrium of the eco-system in utter distress,
The face of the innocent atmosphere,
In severe torture and species extinction made by the annihilating culture,
The eco-system losing its natural grip,
The weather undergoing excessive changes to rip,
Contaminated water and smoke belched pollution,
Destroying the eco-system to annihilation,
The nuclear arsenal and warfare,
Burdening the world population by its tampered gear,
Oh! Citizens of the World, please awake,
Save the environment for posterity for God’s sake.
©Akshaya Kumar Das
20. Environment Degradation
Day by day increasing environment degradation
Caused by man’s activities and deforestation
But what continues is man’s exploitation
Which left only a few land area covered with vegetation
As our land needs much irrigation
Many animal species are in danger of extinction
Because of growth of population and resource utilization
This creates much agitation
Major causes of endangerment are habitat destruction
It is because of pollution and commercial exploitation
Growing everywhere is industrialization
In this sequence we could not leave transportation
Transportation is resulting in air pollution
All these make our life full of irritation
Let’s march together to find its solution
Solution of this problem need implementation
On this World Environment Day!
I want to say
To live with good environment
We have to pay
To implement the solution
Only then we can be happy and gay.
©Rubeena Hameed
21. A Dirge
I seek forgiveness.
For your lush green arras
I had let them snatch away.
Leaving you bare. All to see.
Swaying hands yours, entreated
To spare your cool and calm shade
For us – men.
Sighed earth its wet breath;
For the harbinger of rain.
For whom I cried in vain,
Along with the red-bottomed bulbuls
Cause both had lost
The cavern which restrained,
The forbidding storm.
Now I will muse
The kid dish pelting of your bounty.
Your love dripping
After filling, hungry mouths.
The sweetness, forever to treasure.
I beg forgiveness
For my existence on this earth.
Though conqueror I am
It is I who laid my own grave.
Maybe some eyes will wake,
And truly cherish your like.
Realize – you are the whole Earth,
You are the savior, living God,
Heart of environment.
©Paayol Lalwaani
22. Lifting the Cloche
Black barracks take their seat on the mountain –
it is the Day of Judgment; fields have been made
to grow from seeds the kind of fruits found on
healthy trees. They’ve pushed out shoulders first
like dwarf stumps on mushroom meadows
but this is about rebuking anthropology,
putting a bird in a pond asking it to grow a root
of a flower from its beak, telling the water
to dig its hole down to where the sea flows
without natural reduction, recession or retention,
the clouds birth like a womb on birth control –
deceasing, baring the chest of a sky that has burned
under brown suns – dressing down is lifting cloches
from a dish of overheated skins – there is excuse
of shallowness by arms wide open to indulgence.
The barracks sit on their high chair of ice
made from glaciers of a fair north, where stars are
melted plastic in their flight to earth away from thirst
and stalactites of decrees hang from their perches
like frosted tears.
©Sheikha A
23. The Butterfly on the Flower
The butterfly perched on a pretty pink flower, is such a cliché;
But an important connect in the ecology chain.
One invisible string runs through all parts of the earth, the universe,
Their innumerable lives and deaths;
We marvel!
When the waves jump at the moon in a high tide,
Drawing back with them food for millions of creatures, big and small, within its oceans wide;
We marvel!
When the ever so slow clam, simply pours his sperm into the sea,
And the current carries it to the female, for whom exactly it was
Sent, and she clasps it to fertilize and bring forward their progeny, with such perfect timing.
We marvel;
When the Plover bird sits in the open mouth of a crocodile, a tiny bird, plucking at bits of flesh stuck between the teeth of huge carnivore, thus feeding itself,
And the croc getting its teeth cleaned, ready for the next meal; what a setting in the eco chain.
The silent rocks on the hillsides, standing for centuries, like hermits
Turned into stone in a prophecy, will centuries later, again sprout,
To grow into shrubs, or trees, or even be a part of the cellular Structure of a human being, coming back to life, or were they ever dead, inanimate?
What we call wildlife, are the true inhibitors of the earth;
We mankind have joined in much later, sent by the Father, for a joyride.
This earth belongs to them.
The enormous ecology chain, we cannot fathom, but we do know, if a bead is taken out of the rosary, all the rest go astray, lose their meaning, even the string partly dangles.
All wild life that we know, only enriches out planet,
They take nothing from us; we always take from them;
We rob them of their habitat; rob them of their food,
Rob them of their cool breeze, man is so cruel; Now enough is enough, let the earth be, please, as it is meant to;
Let us not devastate, what we cannot create;
Let us use nature’s pure bounty holistically, sensibly,
Remembering to align with nature, and not malign it, by not meddling with wildlife,
It is immensely more valuable than mankind to the planet,
Let them grow, unharmed and free. Unharmed and free…
©Satbir Chadha
24. The Ultimate Say
Earth
She spins on
Centuries’ wheel by
And yet
She nurtures
For she cannot otherwise
But what if
One day
She turns around and asks
Nurture Me
You fools
Give me back
A bit of love
That I have given
What then would we say
For we know
To Take
Her fruits, her shelter, her skies
And like little monsters
We go
Pecking away
Till one day
When she will cry
Her glaciers melt
And her oceans go dry
Where will you be then
That Day?
Who then will have the Ultimate Say?
©Ipsita Ganguli
25. Indigestive Minds
It’s just not air, polluted
Even the minds; polluted
Because of the minds
An avarice to flaunt
Excess of pollutants arise
Digestive system of minds
Seems to be polluted
Due to them arise
pollution varied
From vivid pollutions
I talk of the main one
Which is available free
Causing damage heavy
Air pollution merged with noise pollution
Two in one; a larger one
When minds can work from home, still
Moves in directions far off to drive
Adding poisonous harmful gases in air
Using fuel more than saving
Cutting down trees
Building jungles of concrete
Instead of growing greenery around
In this at times we merge
noise useless, unnecessary
With blaring sound of bands and music
To flaunt our joys
For weddings, elections, festivals, parties
Irrespective to the illnesses of people around
How selfish we all can be
Our indigestive minds can pollution puke!
©Kalpana Shah
26. Environment
Today, my land lies waste,
Life struggles to sustain,
Seasons are at extremes
Due to climate change.
The e-wastes mount and mount,
They don’t biodegrade,
They demand management
Or else we retrograde.
Just think of living with
Poisoned water and poisoned air,
That is all will be left
If we are not aware.
The environment will rot,
The future will be so bleak,
That generations to come
Will a dystopic tale speak.
©Amit Shankar Saha
27. Ozone Depletion!
The divine shield that protects the earth,
So precious you never can count its worth;
Much above in the stratosphere,
Which wicked man doth ruthlessly tear;
The noblest favour from the creator dear,
Is the blessing of ozone layer;
But man who least its significance knows,
Blindly with the depletion goes;
Thus he tears the life saving layer,
The music of his doom he fails to hear.
Straight the UV rays come down,
To devour creation of which he is the crown;
The CFCs that we harbour in our breast,
Feed on the layer as a blood sucking pest;
Thus to make comfortable this temporary home,
We work havoc with the pleasure dome.
The harmful UV radiations fall,
And crumbles this temporary, ephemeral hall;
Thus is endangered life on the land,
By selfish man’s pernicious hand
The CFCs used in the refrigerators,
Air conditioners, fire extinguishers;
Fall on the shield as sharp spears,
Vain doth man try to ease his fears.
Skin cancer and disease of the eye,
Directly descend from the far sky;
And injustice to the immune system,
Along with many other diseases come;
The causes all in our lap do lie,
Vain doth we complain and awfully cry.
Oh! Let’s be kind to this favour of Lord,
And value this benediction of almighty God.
Let’s take an oath to mend our ways,
That again do return the blissful days!
©Muhammad Ulfat Anjan
28. A Goddess: Decayed
On this poised, evergreen Tree of Life —
A Python has crept and looped in strife,
Swallowing in pitch dark aggression, greed
Shackles put that would never be freed.
Zeal to grow, hollow, meaningless,
I am left as the Dead Earth’s Goddess.
On the pavement of decline, following, a pack
Brainless wolves, humanity, they lack.
A rush to blow herds with deadly dynamites —
Adorning dead does, on walls of insights.
Devastating acres of habitat, the shameless!
I am left to rot, the Earth’s Dead Goddess.
In this silent valley of ruined ecosystem —
Tansley’s coinage? Lost in a system,
A chain of feeding, predating on innocents
Dumb, the quadrupeds, poached in diligence.
Money pulls horns, skins, hides. They, Reckless!
Lost, am I, the Dead Earth’s Goddess.
On the pillars of unity, gathers all Nations.
Talking of protocols with care and passion —
Under secrecy of which, hunted, trafficked
Enlarging the Red List of endangered, extinct,
Conservation fails to cope in the skirmishes.
I am Decayed, the Earth’s Dead Goddess.
In this hanging garden, washed by ashes
The horrific decline, in a second it smashes.
A game against the Might, of transitory masses
For luxury, betting lives to the giant gushes,
Antiques to turn, until ray passes —
I would be slow poisoned to be a Dead Goddess.
©Subhajit Sanyal
29. The Bleak
(Roseate Sonnet: A poetic genre created by Dr. Ampat Koshy)
The artist dabbed his twiggy brush made of a dead leafless shrub,
His canvas the parched earth, paints he to replicate a feline cub,
In just black and white from the grimy oil of the silt of the Dead Sea,
The only name of all earthly oceans, through centuries that came to be.
The Raven scavenged from cadavers of all of the species left behind,
Blood the only colour seeping of the artist’s skin, with which he fine lined,
The canine, bovine, feline, anguilline, caballine, ceratorhine, cervine, cygnine,
Elphine, ursine, ermine, lupine, lapine, delphine, hominine, Earthly avatars to define.
The bard, the poet, the statesman, the tycoon, now spat the soot from the air,
Stars, moonlight bleak sky spots, raining acid, ancient sagas choke with equal share.
Remembering millennia that transpired, the progeny of the swollen headed,
Oscillates between the living dead, in sign languages of matrix embedded,
Sordidly eking time, cursing ancestors, faces sans smiles, nameless seasons pass,
Evil black widow spins a web of needs to wants, a lunatic oasis writhes on dry grass.
©Geethanjali Dilip
30. A Labor of Love and Excellence
“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” ~ Albert Einstein
God, in His mighty wisdom created Planet Earth
As a labor of love par excellence
Where all His children would live in bliss
And where every blade and leaf
Would show the joys of life
Filling the crevices of their lofty mind
With the clear waters of tranquility.
In spite of ozone depletion, polar ice melt
Global warming and rain forest defoliation,
We are still slaves of the forces of greed
Lust for power, hostile intent, malicious manipulation
Orchestrated by very sophisticated beings.
With the ebb and flow of the tides,
In our minds, when the shadows of trees
Standing in graceful composure
Whisper to us in three dimensions,
When Indus Euphrates, Danube, Nile,
And the Mississippi cry to us about the impurities
Suffocating the aquatic lives
Shriving in their waters,
Creating a disastrous journey in our mind
Of the past, present and future,
We cannot be insensitive
To this heart wrenching state of affairs.
Thirty-eight volcanoes are erupting at the same time,
And seismologists and geologists are expecting
A mega tremor with the power to split up continents,
Are we going to sit arms folded, indifferent?
Let us take a staff, like that of Moses and Gandhi,
And start a march across Planet Earth,
The vaulted sky above our heads
And the firm grounds beneath our feet.
We have to save our planet, our home
Leaving for our children and grand-children
What our fathers and fore fathers
Left for us.
©Pramila Khadun
31. Vociferation of a Little Bird
High pitched sounds of bird in quietude
come across through one of my open windows –
“don’t be an et cetera along for just yourself
you have to learn to give life to other natural species
other men will plunder earth, much as you keep quiet”
I am loving the forest and the primeval wind
I don’t feel sick doing work for seas and lakes
I vowed to save environment, by assimilating every movement
That Eventuality has come
Then I follow her as she nudges ’twixt the river
In crooning ripples of water, with her I get the best ever shower
I feel myself now clever
God had made world such aesthetic
We consecrate ourselves towards instincts’ ordinance
Rap out the squealing ozone layer, hoping it doesn’t splinter our chest
I persecuted for Man; now let me beg pardon
If we humans have shame
Saving the environment should be our passionate aim
Cutting beautiful trees, disruption of sinewy rocks, ripping up secure ozone – not a good game
Our motherland-saviour should get great fame.
©Iram Ali
32. Padovana
hello, excuse me, may we speak for a moment? I have watched you since the moment you drew your first breath, crinkled your eyes in your first glimpse of sun, spread your hands and turned up your face catching raindrops, or snowflakes, twirling in rainbows of autumn leaves
your steps have climbed, you view glories stretched beneath tallest mountain peaks; you dive, deep, to explore trenches untouched since their time of counting ocean tides began; you reach, touch the moon, and stars, beneficence far from gravity of events below..
and I have watched, while buildings were raised, and civilisations razed,
while faith transfigured, cars transported, and tanks and DNA transduced
I am, still, watching, tears endless as moonlight shimmers on crystalline waters, as all changed – from wonder, to expectation, to exploitation and eradication.. I am watching, silently waiting… one century folding into the next, one civilization built upon the next, one child… chased by the next.. and in each child, hope renewed, first breath, first wonder, first kiss of the sky, stars, sun and moon
I have loved, and I love still, your every step, every moment, for the promise you held, and hold, for the agony of doubt you suffer, for the grief of separation you withstand
but I endure, silent, ravaged, each step, for the violence you exert, the vengeance you wreak, the despair you sew and every time you flail, and rail, and fail, and fall,
I die a little
and I must speak.. for you have not much time,
seed of my love, blossom of my hope, joy of adventures and beauties of days
every time you wake, and walk, each time a new smile is born, my heart stirs with hope again
so many mistakes have been made, the promise of so many days, and eons, lost,
and if you delve too deeply into the core of my being
I will shatter
and with the floods of my tears, and the searing lava of my despair and phoenixed faith
I will shake, and turn the ravages of destruction and hatred behind me,
and I pray to greet a day renewed, to sew again my earth-seed, the great hope hidden therein
for while your steps are numbered, earth-seed,
I will love you, and the promise still hidden within you,
with all the hope and faith of Eternity
©Michele Baron
33. The Last Crow
A carrion crow
tired of cawing a moral lesson –
flees from fairytale, reality soars
like a Seraphim aglow
of the sky azure
in the fury of ‘The Helios’
Swirling over ‘The Zombie Prometheus’
Searching for the non-existent ocean
beneath the gaping Ozone…
It finally perches
on an acacia bare
on the desiccated desert grave
Watching helpless
the only pitcher crack
Spilling precious drops scant
on the greedy womb charred
the pebbles of his first dawning
lie about burnt and baked…
Mourning every beast and thorny bush
devoured by synthetic demons…
Ravenous, it grunts and collapses
To the last post-Modern lesson –
‘The crushed Mother Earth
can no longer bear
the Humanity’s stampede
of progress and its flair –
The wounded Nature today
warns and wails
to be still saved
Lest ‘The Dark Thanatos’
forever everywhere prevails…’
©Malkeet Kaur
34. The Cowdung Breaths
She opens her still puffed and bleary eyes,
to the cock’s clarion shrill.
To and fro, to and fro,
from the thatched hut to the farm, is her daily drill.
The smell of the cow dung,
tickles her nostrils not anymore.
Mooing of cows is her everyday lore.
She treads upon the still yawning path with a pitcher steady on her veiled head.
A sigh escapes her supple lips,
wearied, she at times wishes, she were dead.
She bends to the river mouth,
scoops water, a pitcher-full.
The waters mirror her fragile frame,
the drape, the veil, the weary eyes and the dreams unfulfilled,
lurking therein.
She is barefoot,
but,
the green patches don’t appease her soles.
The cluster of trees on sides both
don’t make her forget her tough roles.
A drop or two bubble up in her beautiful eyes,
finding their way down to the thick veil.
A muffled sob…
A bud or two,
get trampled upon,
under her brisk steps.
And she knows not…
She’s to milk the cows, feed them too, and ready the cowdung cakes before they all wake up.
Sigrhi is to be readied too, in time, and
kids to be fed.
An angelic smile crosses her rosy cheeks,
she has some dreams nursed in her bosom still…
In school they are teaching her kids,
‘how to conserve the environment?’
©Maya Khandelwal
35. Ignore Not Nature
Perched on a bough,
Twittering a sweet song,
Passerby ignore galore,
She goes on and on…
Oblivious of surrounds,
She swells her heart out,
Tweeting away golden lyrics,
Forcing spirit furry and stout
The bard in me delights,
A clause enticing to express,
Blithely she croons aloud,
Unchained by imposed distress
Imagine she meets me in the eye
To mockingly solemnize:
“Pay no heed to me dead people
Let illusory things con you in,
Nature’s bounty when you ignore
Your ships are bound to sink”
The singsong of city life draws,
Deserting a natural melody,
We draw curtains, shield truth
We seek succor, no remedy.
Undeterred feathery flutters again,
Towards a far-flung branch,
Submissive to the deposition,
Spirited in resolve she’s stanch.
I hope she sings along
I hope we decode the brunt song…
I hope she just lives long
I hope until we hear the song…
©Charu Gulati
36. Mother Earth – Our Saviour
sincerity was his forte
kindness his ultimate nature
mother earth was the sole petrichor
was the winner for writing an amazing essay
on environment protection come what may
thoughts and ethos culminated into a hopeful ray
today he is a successful builder
constructs and erects homes for many
has forgotten the oath he took years ago
his self-respect cries in the gutter so lonely
cuts trees ruthlessly and digs bore wells shamelessly
gives bribes for passing the incorrect maps
his existence sobs haplessly
the crust is in ICU
she needs to be saved by you
do not wait for others to join
excuses will bring calamities any moment
speak up and act
surge and keenly observe
each breath is significant
nature is a saint so omnipresent!
©Megha Sumant Sharma
37. Tears of Earth
Branching veins draw it into the dark
It is mere rags, dying in dribs and drabs
It has stopped serving its exotic demand
The dissolving soil, the shore less floods
Astray of dusts, pollution all-around
Dissolve and disappear in tangle and thorn
The dust of time halts for a while
A town with smoke trails not caring
That dawn Brings death
The parasol no longer exists
All changed in the polluted world
Oh! Save the earth
Plant trees
On the heart of earth
The burning, clammy monster
Rages still surrounded with
The dark whirl of smoke so wide
The pesticides on plants
Made them die in overnight
Autumn rustles, stuffs dead leaves in it
Earth brown washed out now
A few more years and a tree will shed the remains
There’s a call from World Environment Day
Like why we celebrate it on a specific date
Indeed! It’s the awareness we would like to spread
Among all the human kind
That we should treat our Mother earth right
Or we will intimidate an unerring plight
This poem reminds us the nitty-gritty of our adorable earth
Let’s celebrate the World Environment Day
By going green; and rising beyond the awareness
©Rainy Sarmistha
38. Let Her Breathe
A lung full of fume,
a grey city spewing venom
as thousands rush
for a better life.
What is better?
Who will decide the parameter?
A child’s drawing book
is still filled with
paintings of stars and moon
green meadows and
gurgling brooks.
Figures of kids flying kites
dad’s and mom’s happy smiles,
bubble wrapped happiness
painted in vibrant rainbow shades
Can we not give them even a slice
of such a life?
Should we pause –
unlearn?
Rethink?
A depleted earth – hollow, charred,
an eerie silence of graveyard
awaits the future.
It’s time to let her replenish
its time to let her breathe.
©Mallika Bhaumik
39. It’s Already Too Late!
If I point a finger at you
I won’t be spared too,
It’s you and me
We are to be blamed together;
The sun is scorching overhead
Earth is burning hot
People are dying,
Praying for every drop.
The barrenness hurts the eyes
Now a heavy burden,
Man is the architect of his own destruction,
Is their conscience still alive?
All that’s lay ahead
Are lanes of concrete jungle
Too suffocating,
Smote, smoke and dust,
Humans have turned blind,
Too naive to gauge the damage
Yes, it’s hard to thrive.
Mother Earth is pained
Tortured,
Thunders,
Enough is enough!
Her tears have dried up,
Stands alone in such agitation
A silent appeal,
“Wake up! It’s already too late.”
©Nandini Mitra
40. The Voodoo Doll
She is a ruin— a broken vessel
Her once luscious hair— now dreadlocks that tremble.
Her once lively skin— now dried scales that wither
Her once watery eyes— now bloodshot; her breath quiver.
Her once floral dress— now torn and tattered, stained with crimson splatters.
Her once lush body— now scars run all over her; scattered.
Once upon a time, she was revered as a goddess,
Now she is a voodoo doll.
Needles all over her— they pierce more than just her body
The blood that oozes from her voodoo-wounds is not a nightmare, but a promise
As her misery has just begun,
And her screams are now going to be unheard.
Her once lovely name— now a taunt; which gets inked on
Paper made from the bark of now haunted trees in blood’s font.
Her ruin— once a beautiful dream
Her hair— the hands of pollution.
Her once lively skin— the fertile green giver of grains.
Her once watery eyes— the rivers.
Her quivering breath– the sorrowful winds.
Her floral dress— the flowers on the grass.
The needles piercing more than her soul— the humans.
The blood that oozes from her fragile frame— her teardrops.
She was a goddess— Mother Earth, once revered.
Today, she is a lifeless voodoo doll.
As we throttle her remaining memory,
She will be much worse, less than a haunt.
©Kashish Kaur
41. Epitaph
In a state of coma, the planet earth is counting days in a hospital ward
Soon leading newspapers will carry the obituary, poet will write epitaph –
‘Once upon a time, there was a beautiful planet called the planet Earth, got annihilated by her own peoples out of greed and capitalistic exploitation’
Global warming, ozone depletion, polar ice melting, deforestation, El Niño are some of the possible postmortem report’s outcomes.
To bring her back to life, mass prayers and human chains are going on.
‘Seven billion dreams, one planet, consume with care’ and ‘zero tolerance for illegal wildlife trade’ are the slogans!
The day is not too far when it will be mandatory to open account in a water bank.
Aadhaar card will be a must for the online booking of oxygen cylinders for the school going children.
Wherever eyes go dead bodies of waterfalls, mountains to be found only in drawing book’s pictures.
The tiger, an extinct species will move freely in social media as a video clip.
Now that ‘Sparrow Day’ is being celebrated by the UNO world over,
Imagine someday in an alien planet the extraterrestrials celebrating ‘The Day of the Homo Sapien’!
©Prahallad Satapathy
42. Tarnish No More
Oh, Mankind!
Pry no more into the affairs of nature.
You proved to be a blind creature.
Behold the skies that you have darkened
With the malefic gases of your futile triumphs.
What is this victory for?
It is the power of evil wisdom-less.
Our children and their children choke
To this air we have created heartless.
Even the sun cannot brighten our skies.
Say no more how foul the water tastes.
It is befouled by our dirty treads in hastes.
The acid rain quenches our thirst,
While we fall victim to our own lust –
Of taming the nature is the obsession,
But we have lost her trust –
We only smell and touch without passion.
Hands of Midas we possess;
What we touch does not become gold,
But our hands resemble the parasitic mould.
Cry no more for the animals in torment.
Have a close look at the hide
That covers your frail body, while you hide
Behind those fake tears that you shed
At one corner of the lonely shed,
Where only your weeps echo,
But not of its dead inhabitants.
Cry no more for the skins you ripped apart,
Your heart is soft for
Neither the whales’ nor the red ants’ heart.
©Niladri Ranjit Chakraborty
43. Healing Environmental Bruises
I, a dead plank of a chopped tree
Dry and bruised albeit was born green
Abused by man’s greed, I feel betrayed
Man’s selfish desires degrade
Fishes die asphyxiated by plastic
Venom of mercury drastic
Choked to death flora fauna heap
Each second, tons of garbage reeks
Bad ozone soaks sun in hot smog
Hitting all with scorch and breaths clog
Arctic sheds tears, snow melts, ash smears
Global heat radiates cancer fears
Dwindle to extinct Orangutan,
Rhinos, Gorilla, elephants
Feast for eyes some flaunt costly pelts
Beasts ripped live! Did your soul not melt?
Anger of mother earth’s blatant
Tsunamis and earthquake rampant
Why not heed to nature’s warnings
Mend our ways ere denouement sings
Recycling waste, ideas nurture
We father or monster future
Wait not for the trees to vanish
Or streams by poison to banish
Create the clouds back to pour good rain
Deserts can smile oasis again
With love and care, seasons can breathe
Man, for Earth, revive much needed sheath
©Sunila K
44. Who the F*@& Stole my Petrichor?
Body in blisters
A summer thorn forest
Flames I attempt to douse
With tricky prickly heat products
Slip inside my shortest shorts
Waddle outside
A huge belt of darkness
Under the circle of sky’s eyes
I muse to myself
Songs of coming baby shower
First a drop, then it drips, then a roaring Niagara
As I wade duck feet
Browned by muck
Lift my nose bridge
To steal away some petrichor
A fly whizzing atop
Discarded dinner surplus
Swelling pregnant stagnant drainpipes
Fluid plastic bags
Wet sooty jets
And despairing sweat
Dripping down the high brows
Of indifferent sons of earth
Blend like bubbling cauldron
Of offal offering rising in poisonous incense coils
To worship the devils in us
To whore the planet
For plastic shores
There goes my petrichor!
©Nivedita Dey
45. The Ultimate
Gone are those days when sun rose from a silhouette of trees
moon hung from branches
as a perfect picturesque
bird’s chatter on trees was
a rhythmic crescendo
breeze was fragranced with leaf’s ethereal touch
air was as pure as exhaled breath of trees
sky azure was a charm to witness
seasons were regular and profound
with their inevitable presence
petrichor was endearing with the mood of rain
with play of rays and raindrops
platonic illusion was rainbow
bewitching were its hues and
elegance
seeing the beauty and nature’s bounty
mute were words and mind in trance
priorities change with changing dimensions of life
vegetation on path of diminution
with industrialization in boom
black serpentines all over in name of infrastructure
absorbing heat of sun and releasing as scorching heat to atmosphere
the green-house effect we have ultimately chosen
ending up with holes in ozone and
melting away of glaciers frozen
that will drown us away
the fate of Earth written by us is in danger
for which devastation is the price we will pay!
©Anita Sahoo
46. The Truth
your truth
and mine
may be different
but the Earth
and what we have done to her
is the unidimensional truth
nothing subjective about it
like Sheikh Chilli
we have attacked our own abode
and we have nowhere else to go
when it collapses
we will not be able to reverse it
but we can try to repair the damage
through our actions
neutrality will not help
nor will looking away
we are the problem
and we need to be the solution
©Gauri Dixit
47. My Two Beloved Mothers
You offered earth for my origin
While my biological mother, her flesh and blood
Ma supplied me nourishment through her breasts
While you emptied some roots to offer me fruits
Ma used to caress my skin with Love
And you stroke my hair lovingly through the wind
I felt warm in Ma’s lap, you kept me warm through the sun
Her slender fingers have the same magic as your green grass when it touches me
You have no comparison, O Mother Earth!
Ma bore me and you bore the whole world
Ma fed me and you fed the whole world
Ma cradled me and you cradled the whole world
Ma loved me and you loved the whole world
Still you are left neglected.
‘Tis a pity!
It’s high time to take care of our mother
Before it’s too late for us
Let’s love our mother as dearly
As she loves us
Let us make this earth pollution free
So that breathing becomes a bliss
Let us clean it as tenderly as our mothers did when we were young
Let us serve the one who never lets us live a loveless life!
©Fatima Afshan
48. Once and Now
Uprooting ourselves from the lives
We were once blessed to lead, we see
Rivers clogged by salvation and disease
Coastlines disappear into soulless memories
As we pollute the air our children breathe
The exhausted landscape of broken promises
Reflects our unsustainable dreams:
We chop down trees to assuage our greed
Our eyes squint through the luxuriant smog
As we reach back again to reclaim
The ancient rhythms we always shared
With those around us in this wilderness
For “eco-friendly” is not only a buzzword
Used by suits in conference halls
Or uttered repeatedly with “world peace”
By an ever smiling Ms. Universe
To win another senseless crown – –
It is a sprawling valley of the mind
Soaking up the sun, free from acid rain
Embracing the eternal truth: “We are One.”
©Vijay Nair
49. The Nila
We share a bond
the sky and I
with a vow never to transgress;
He would pour down his joys and sorrows
in slanting buds of rainbow hues
and I carried them in my bosom
blossoming, blooming as I flowed;
many a possessed bard grew gardens
with the ink from my womb,
tales choreographed themselves into
Kathakali and Ottamthullal;
Even gods floated in little boats atop my ripples
-fireflies of devotion.
Not every man is a poet
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand”
nor every poet a god,
men are mafias of logic
marauding my veins;
Now I drag myself
like the shadowed Tholpavakoothu,
my waters, arthritic,
the sky looks on hapless
the last drops dislodged in his clouded eyes.
When I die, poets die
and with us humanity,
the blinded sky will also perish
in want of a dirge, not knowing his death.
©Zeenath Ibrahim
50. Environment Outraged
I was blessed to this mother earth
The witty brains thought me to be a mirth
The trees, the mountains, the rivers,
The skies, the oceans, the air too fear
The earthly land, the life wild,
Vanishing turfs, as anathemas cry
Once worshipped with earnest conventions
Dignified as divine pretentions
The zephyrs now turn to wreaths
Rising derision in every breath
The rainbow Seven too sigh
In grief the sun yells, doesn’t smile
It stalks the morning
And scorches noon
No more lovers are smitten by beautiful moon
In thy vim, thou lost your solicitous nature
It seems now, thou burn me as amateur
No more shall I tolerate your torture
Your obscure senility is crystal clear
Thy acts beckon me into your alienation
I warn the capricious you that bungled me for thy desirous incantations
For thee unending devastation
Yet I say to make your hay while the sun shines
Or the loss shall be yours, not mine.
©Aarti Mittal
51. Earth Mom
I walked on the wet black soil,
I touched the earth
And she touched me.
We felt a bond,
That carried me.
My feet were sullied,
My heels blistered.
I walked on
For the bond grew stronger,
I just grew wiser.
I connected with the earth.
She nurtured me.
I touched the earth
She touched me.
©Sushmita Gupta
52. Oh, Mother of the Universe!
I beg pardon, Mother!
You care but I never care
You plant but I chop
You clean but I pollute
I spit but you absorb.
I beg pardon, Mother!
I tread rudely over you.
On which I used to wobble,
On which I learned to walk,
But still depend on it at last.
I beg pardon, Mother!
I dis-obligate you
I oppress you
I disappoint you
But you never harm me.
I beg pardon, Mother!
I’ll be returned to you
One day I’ll be under you
Dead in your lap
Ashamed, broken and lying.
©Taqveem ul Haq
53. Then and Now
Then it was heaven
The coconut trees rampant
The tapioca in profusion
The plantain groves aplenty
The grass running wild
Always having to be trimmed
Vegetable gardens everywhere
Fruit trees and healthy plants
As well as ones that were for their flowers and beauty
A veritable paradise
Now the coconuts suffer from disease
The plantain groves have dwindled
The grass is imported and trimmed
And fed by sprinklers, not the rain or the monsoon
The tapioca, rare
Everything has undergone a sea change
And to see paddy fields one has to go afar off
Who is to blame, we are not quite sure
But each earth hour or day, we go on bemoaning
The ill deeds of what we have done to our earth
Without knowing how to repair the losses
Make up for our faults and sins
Except by writing poems
And listening to Michael Jackson
What we need is to retire
And look after the land
Live at peace with it
And in its rhythms
Find the courage to do it
And help our children and grandchildren too
So they feel it in their bones
The love for the land
And are as one with it
As you still are every time
Whenever you go back
As was you father and grandfather
To the land of your childhood and its dreams.
© Koshy AV
54. Discontent, Hungry, Dead Worm
I went with a friend or a fiend
In the smog you could never tell,
To the mountains un-climbable, un-climbed
Beside the forbidden river, well
Oh, if only I could shudder
Clouds black barren without rain
land inspired by mountains made no produce, not by choice, stuttered
Employed all resources, all venom, in vain
Oh, if only I could shudder
Peeling the green apple you lived
Navigating via new radars
Juices flow, before they could take one more bite
Oh, if only I could shudder
The war of decay, in midst of celebration and hurray
Face rotten, four coffin bearers
Tired, exhausted with over-workload in dismay
Oh I shivered
In the battle of greed, as the apple bleed
Bloodbath red less white like a pus, flooded
lost the battle, the conqueror worm.
©Pallavi Tripathi
55. Seeking Green Earth
All I ask is a patch of my dear Mother Earth
A clutch of a bit of her unblemished apron
A toe hold of mud, free of gore and bloodshed
To sink my roots deep in healing vermilion
Unpolluted from her womb, water like nectar
Sustaining, nourishing life with her blessed essence
All I ask is a whiff, pure breath of my Earth
Inhaled deeply, would pulse my lungs crimson
A light breeze cavorting, free of carbon and soot
Uplifting, refreshing, energizing, invigorating
Carefree the wind, breezing cheer and contentment
My future generations, verdant and thriving
All I ask is a sprinkle, soak my being in rain
Pristine, pure, water for my body and soul
Free of dust, acids, pollutants and poison
I would paint myself aqua light with silver dew
Cloaked by a million sparkling rainbows
Crystal drops on emerald leaves, simple my dreams
So I journeyed, far and wide, to the clarion call
Seeking Resplendent Earth, hope quaking
Mother Earth in tow, both of us despairing
Not a foot hold, all littered, clogged, preyed and bloodied
Her body trembling, drilled, mined and fractured
Her oceans slick and dying, her lungs smogged and poisoned
Denuded, naked, defiled, and concretized
Levelled the story of Earths billion year creation
All it took was a mere hundred years of Man’s manipulation
Life is fodder for engines of modernization
My dreams of green Earth, only a childish manifestation
©Seema Jayaraman
56. Wildlife SOS
Wildlife SOS sounded the alert
And 400 items of wild-life trafficking and snaring were pulled down by an online retail giant!
Wild animals kill for food, while humans for pleasure!
May the shooting photographers’ tribe increase and the taxidermists’ decrease!
The moneyed, liveried not always world-class citizens,
Trophy wives, please say no to
Tiger claw pendants, exotic plumed hats for your racecourse events,
Alligator, snake, otter skin handbags,
Say no to cozying up in minks and pashmina shawls,
Say no to that ethereal swoon inducing perfume- a musk deer was killed for your olfactory pleasure,
Say no to your kids’ private zoos, aquariums, aviaries and butterfly parks,
I question you – How would you like it if you were naked and spread eagled for public scrutiny?
Live and let live,
Be guardians of this beautiful, bountiful Earth with her flora and fauna!
©Pratima Apte
57. Collective Comeback
I wish to have a garden of my own
I won’t go for hanging gardens
And bonsai! Not my taste, for many reasons
I know how to ready a jar of pickles
I heard of mummification
And I recently read about bread and bun having cancer causing chemicals
I sweat a lot
Tiny dots adorn my neck not clothed
And I have to buy bottled drinks, lemon grows not.
I will not make a visit to Inferno
And I snatch not air out of their lungs
I avert my eyes from pots and get sulky.
Prune me not, neither that green dot
Which is saved in a hurry, but not of a choice
Your being will get strained.
Water the life that talks not
Plant that innocence back in your heart
I expect a collective comeback.
© Neहा ©Neha Kumari
58. Survival Scare
Parched land
barren souls.
Uncertain wind; whimsical blows.
Change of seasons
sans any reason.
Mountainous terrain or valley of rain
nature eroded
humanity exploded.
Gone the days!
Glorious bright sun
torrential rains.
Rejuvenating breeze
winters of haze.
Sarcasm in the air
lost night; invigorating moon-lit charm
Tempered sunshine
revengeful intent, till humans disarm.
Flood or draught
rain-god never so distraught.
Never too late
May humanity; envision the change.
May every soul plant roots
for generations of the future.
No longer, the mother earth
a lifeless caricature.
© Vishal Ajmera
59. Be Kind to Life
this world is to live, we are here to love
this globe is for all, no land is our own
you, me, apes, rhinos, whales, orchids and rosewood
we are all here to live, to breathe life as it comes
elephants, rhinos, tigers and gorillas
all have their right, on this globe to live
let them live in their wild, free
why to chase and hunt innocents, in spree
for your pleasures of excitement
and for your glories and achievements
it isn’t heroic , don’t you know
hunting the wild and lynching the nature
stop this horror, don’t be a terror
burry your arms, embrace your truth
let us live, you me plant and cat, loving each
on this lap of nature, in this womb of cosmos
let us be humane, save our mother, protect our earth
spreading love, being tolerant, care this planet
live with smiles, breath with love, caring all
the creatures around, the forest, the sea and the desert
kill your ego, slay your angers, burn your greed
bloom like a flower, sing like a bird, glide like an eagle
plant a tree, let life bloom
care an animal, let love live.
©Raj Babu Gandham
Feature Picture by Michelle Baron
Pix from Net.
#WorldEnvironmentDay #Poem #Earth #Land #Sky #Wind #Pollution #Anthology
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