Some ponderings on #EarthDay 2022

 It seems clear to me that, over the years since 1970, the environmental movement has lost considerable momentum. Many of the Earth Day messages I’m seeing this year are trying to get me to buy something to celebrate Earth Day. I consider those messages to be a form of greenwashing. There’s another, better way to celebrate Earth Day, we can and should honor and acknowledge those who helped establish the first Earth Day,

“The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”  ― Gaylord Nelson

Photo by J. Harrington

April is, among other things, National Poetry Month. I wish the Academy of American Poets would do more to take advantage of the annual overlap between Poetry Month and Earth Day. Here’s some suggestions for your reading pleasure. See if your local library has a copy of any of these volumes.

• Can Poetry Save the Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems, John Felstiner 

•  The Ecopoetry Anthology, Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street, Ed. 

•  Imagining the Earth: Poetry and the Vision of Nature, John Elder

If you’re among those who much prefer prose to poetry, we offer for your consideration Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac by Julianne Lutz Newton.

Restoring the earth, and protecting the little that we’ve not harmed yet, is not a technical nor economic challenge. It is a challenge to which our hearts and wills must rise. We must remember how much we are dependent on earth for all that we need. The earth is the only home we have. It IS OUR PLANET B!

Remember

Joy Harjo - 1951-

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

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