Earth Day 2022 – a poem

22/04/2022 Annette

On Earth Day 2022

Let your promise be the dandelion that won’t be sprayed or mowed;
the tree that won’t be felled to widen a road or let more light into your home;
the moth that won’t be deceived by your bright lights;
the peat that won’t be dried to heat your home or fertilise your garden;
the meadow that won’t be developed into another sprawling suburban estate;
the native woodland that won’t be turned into an amenity.

Let your act of resistance be the bog that won’t be drained to plant a tree farm;
the water that won’t be poisoned by agricultural runoff;
the hedgerow that won’t be butchered;
the scrub that won’t be burnt back, cleaned up, torn down;
the river that won’t be dredged, straightened, culverted in the name of flood defences.

Let your intention be the seabird that won’t be trapped by plastic waste;
the fish that won’t be harvested out of the depths by factory trawlers;
the coast that won’t be polluted by sewage overflow or oil spills;
the whale that won’t be led astray by the sonic booms of fossil fuel exploration;

Let your legacy be the wild that wasn’t tamed into oblivion.

Because what we do to nature,
We do to ourselves.

On Earth Day 2022,
Let our prayer be that another world is possible.