It’s Poetry Friday and, like Carol, who is posting the weekly roundup today, one of my goals for the New Year is to participate more in this wonderful sharing of poetry. And I even sat down to write a poem for today’s post.
But my country is on fire. And, while I did manage to write some lines on this fact, and my feelings, they are not fit to share here because they offer no hope. The poem was part sorrow, part anger at the man elected to run this country and the big interests which have for too long denied that our climate is changing and that action needs to be taken. I wanted my poem to end on a note of postitivity because, believe it or not, I am able to see some positives. The voices being raised by every day people to say ‘enough’, the thousands of volunteers (and paid workers too) working to fight the fires, to try to keep people safe, to rescue animals, to put pressure on an inept Federal Government to do more, these are all positives. But when I tried to put that into a poem they sounded like platitudes – and we have heard too many of those.
So instead, my non-poetic post is to say that there will be poetry on this blog and in our future. Sad poems, angry poems, and happy poems too. Because we need creativity now more than ever.
From my safe spot on the west coast, I will continue to write, and to live , and even to find joy. I will do what I can, when I can, for those affected by the fire, and for the country I love which will be suffering for a long time. And I will put my anger to good use to join in the calls for change, in Australia and around the world. We need to start treating our earth as the fragile thing it has always been.
Here is to a 2020 filled with poetry and with positive action. You can start with more poetry by visiting Carol’s Corner for the roundup of links. The Maya Angelou poem Carol is sharing is really appropriate at the moment – and always.
Oh, in the midst of my need to share my worries, I almost forgot that I did take the time this week to think about goals/resolutions for 2020. I wanted to come up with one word for the year, but ended up with several.
, poetry quote
challenge which sees students across the state reading a wide range of books from a curated list. What I hadn’t realised was that I have books on each of the four lists – for ages from Kindergarten to Year 9.
