Falling sky
Photo: Pakistan Red Crescent
Who thought this could happen?
Who thought that the sky
would fall on our heads?
It’s not what they said.
We’ll be drowning they said.
We’ll be swimming they said
In sobbing seas with the flavour of tears.
In oceans of wavelets lap-lapping our heads.
Look what’s happened instead.
Its not what they said.
When the ice caps gained freedom
they flew up to the skies,
they dissolved into clouds,
then they rained on our heads.
That’s not what they said.
2013
Pakistan – floods and starvation
It was a shock to come across this old poem of mine and to find it so perfectly fits what is happening in Pakistan. We have been warned about rising sea levels and have believed that this would be a gradual process and manageable. That is because we do not understand the relationship between increased carbon – melting icecaps and violent rainfall all of which is forecast in this poem. The people of Pakistan need help. Here are links to Medecin sans Frontieres and to Save the Children
Predictions and fears for our future
I wrote this poem some 9 years ago. I was looking at the Pyrenees and thinking of the last glaciers there disappearing forever – they are now predicted to be gone in less than 10 years. What does that mean for the people who live on the plains below? Those of us who live in the shelter of the Pyrenean range depend on the mountain rivers for hydro-power and drinking water.
Drought and a dying environment
Right now millions of people – women and children especially – are starving in the drought in Somalia. This year has seen us suffer extreme heat without rain except when there are some destructive storms. It has been a year when flowers have had a short season and there have been fewer insects. Without insects we will have less food in our vegetable gardens. Humans need insects to survive. This year I’ve seen European hornets starving to death while at the same time I’ve been fighting the tiny but efficient invasive tiger mosquito that brings disease with it.
Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley
It is important not to lose hope. It is important to learn, to understand and to change how we live.
My book Dust and Rain is an important story for children that raises awareness about climate change. It needs to find more readers! It needs to have the positive reviews it deserves posted so that it can fight against climate change. My book needs your help – and children need my book to have hope for our world. Please Readers – buy my book – please Readers – review my book.
4 Comments on “Climate change poem”
Your words strike home, Ruth. What a worrying world. We used to think – just a little while ago- that once the Covid pandemic abated , all would be well again. Instead stead, just about everything is falling to pieces.
There are always things we can do to help if we are the lucky ones not wading through muddy water – still – I did not mean to depress anyone and certainly not you – getting the balance right is not simple – despair is probably the greatest danger for us all – life is precious and worthwhile – best wishes Lorraine
This was all predicted by Chicken Licken..
– and the moral is? – that alarmism is dangerous and can be based on false reading of dubious evidence? – that can lead to worse danger than the chance that an acorn will drop off a tree onto one’s head – true indeed! So is crying wolf! But – when the sky does fall – or it doesn’t and there’s no rain? – the courage to continue is a requirement -and hope!