Welcome back to the odd poetery of the Peeps related to holidaze! Let’s investigate what today is, because we need all the holidaze we can celebrate, right?
PLEASE NOTE: Thanks to the limited number of poems on topic, the orange sky outside my door, and my computer glitching so that I can’t download any new photos, this evening’s diary isn’t so whimsical/funny. But hopefully you’ll find it hopeful anyway. Things have to get better at this point!
Lately, every day seems to be many holidays! Which is good, because we all have our favorites. So I will pick out one, and you can click the link above if you’re curious about the rest. This is an Open Thread, so please feel free to add your favorite pomes and photoes and holidaze for today in the Comments!
Today is Greenpeace Day
It was… [49] years ago that a ragtag group of hippies first set sail from Burrard Inlet in an attempt to stop the U.S. government from blowing up nuclear bombs off the coast of Alaska. Worried the testing could trigger devastating tsunamis, the young environmentalists initially called themselves the Don't Make a Wave Foundation, but soon ended up themselves making waves of their own under their new nom de guerre, Greenpeace.
The Greenpeace Foundations has since become the worlds largest, independent environmental organization and famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view or stock holdings) for taking a hands-on approach to a variety of important issues ranging from global warming to rainforest deforestation, overfishing and commercial whaling.
Next year is their 50th anniversary! And they are needed to make “good trouble” more than ever.
Salvage
by Ada Limón
(emphasis mine — ec)
(note also that the above was published on the Greenpeace website, so the above link takes you there, if you’d like to donate)
On the top of Mount Pisgah, on the western
slope of the Mayacamas, there’s a madrone
tree that’s half-burned from the fires, half-alive
from nature’s need to propagate. One side
of her is black ash and at her root is what
looks like a cavity that was hollowed out
by flame. On the other side, silvery green
broadleaf shoots ascend toward the winter
light and her bark is a cross between a bay
horse and a chestnut horse, red and velvety
like the animal’s neck she resembles. I have
been staring at the tree for a long time now.
I am reminded of the righteousness I had
before the scorch of time. I miss who I was.
I miss who we all were, before we were this: half
alive to the brightening sky, half dead already.
I place my hand on the unscarred bark that is cool
and unsullied, and because I cannot apologize
to the tree, to my own self I say, I am sorry.
I am sorry I have been so reckless with your life.
[Ada Limón is the author of five books of poetry, including The Carrying (note the link goes to a non-Amazon purchase option!), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and was named one of the top 5 poetry books of the year by the Washington Post.]
