NO SNOW
The snow did not come,
seeing no need to blanket
an over-warm earth.
Tag Archives: climate change
CLOUDS
Clouds drape like a shroud
across my visage, arms and legs.
Walking on this windy day is hard
and drags me to the ground
as step by step I pray
for those who hunker down
in homes where danger lays
like hot honey burning the skin,
unable to get away
from the flow of screaming
bullets, bombs, and storms
with names like
warlord, Putin and Ian.
Each step I safely take
is heavy, carrying the pain
of others whom I cannot save.
Simply continuing onward
is all I can handle today,
under the shroud,
too slow and weighted down
to make a difference
or even a smile.
How does one lift up others
when lifting a foot
to go one more step
seems impossible?
Even words are weighted
with unspoken thoughts
too heavy to lift
above the shroud
of a world encased in cloud.
Filed under POETRY
DOMINION
Why must we believe in hierarchical hold
over all of creation when we know
creation is a manifestation humble and bold
of greater power than our own?
Creation is the hand of God
who needs no interlopers to command
what has already been put into a plan
to continue the life force falling from His hands.
No dominion then, an ancient view,
replaced by a single rule of egality
to love each creation as He loves you.
No dominion then, but brotherhood,
as Francis told the Assisi fold,
brother sun and sister moon
brother wolf and sister frog
brother lake and sister river
brother corn and sister clover
brother rock and sister sand
brother man and sister woman
brother children and sister aged
brother Muslim, Hindu and Jew
sister Catholic and Protestant, too.
No dominion needed here.
Brotherhood and sisterhood
held close and made dear.
Creation needs no dominion
to replace our fear.
Faith, hope and love makes this clear.
So preach to creation, but not of your rule.
Preach of your love and promises true
to protect and defend any and all
which is shared with, not given, to you.
Filed under POETRY
KILLING OUR CHILDREN
The garden is awash in earths tears,
unleashed by climate change fears,
carried on gusts of wind beating down
on an already soaked ground
where drenched petals now lie spent.
The sky cried for days, nothing really new.
But now she cries for others, too;
not only herself as her rhythms are torn loose.
She cries for miles of wounded souls
across America’s fields of woe
as Americans try to cope with the pain
of children ignored, wounded and slain.
Guns locked and loaded against all
who are not white men with moneyed eyes
which blind their view of progressive skies
opened to all that is bright and new;
like children who seek to grow up wise,
appreciating every new experience
as an exploration of greater happiness.
Even childlike innocence is not enough
to save the lives of little ones
when war is waged by hopeless men
preyed upon by sellers of guns
who magnify phony fears for profit
and ratings and votes.
Earth and I have come undone,
hopes dampened by clouds of tears
hiding the sun. Each child a flower
mown down, unable to run to safety.
Not one.
Not a single one.
Filed under POETRY
HOTHEADS AND HOT PLANETS
Temperature dropped fifty degrees.
It snowed last night, to pansy’s surprise.
Such cold stills connections
among the creatures of this earth.
How much colder is space beyond
this planet we are on.
Billions of suns, most yet unknown,
leave dark space frozen,
dark matter hidden from our view.
What connections are possible
between planets, when those on earth
are few and far between?
How do we reach each other
beyond the coolness and disdain
for others we see as not the same?
How do we warm up the atmosphere
to allow friendships to form and hold
us safe from violence and war?
How do we share warmth
without setting fires to enflame
nations, planets, universes?
Time to figure it out.
The clock is ticking.
Hotheads are rising
despite the falling snow
trying to cool tempers
and temperatures.
Filed under POETRY
REMEMBER THOU ARE DUST
Call the sun names.
Carry buckets of coal.
Bring shovels to bury the dead.
Careful, now, how you tread
on the burnt offerings
of now fallow fields
and forests turned desserts.
Take to the sea.
In sheltered ports linger
to avoid the worst storms.
Set sail in steaming waters
which no longer cool
temperatures nor tempers,
and boil over onto shores
of discontent.
Remember thou are dust
and to dust thou shall return.
We are over-heated earth.
We are worsening storms,
more violent,
making everlasting wars
within ourselves
and our false borders.
We are both victimizer and victim
of global warming.
We cannot escape
ourselves.
We are dust
and to dust
we shall return.
GLOBAL WARMING
Too bright for the eyes
I could not watch
The sun rise.
and his behind cold lids
a fearful surprise
and dread.
No ribbon at a time
of colorful delight,
but a glaring reminder
all is not right.
The overheated sun
surprises the garden
drenched in snow
risen and fallen
from melting ice fields
in warming seas
I may never see.
The connection
between heat and ice
is broken off the glacier
of frozen hearts
in heated despair.
And we, blinded by glare
of the too-strong sun
are too blind now
To see.
Filed under POETRY
GLOBAL WARMING
Too bright for the eyes
I could not watch
the sun rise,
and hid behind cold lids
a fearful surprise
and dread.
No ribbon at a time
of colorful delight,
but a glaring reminder
all is not right.
the overheated sun
surprises the garden
drenched in snow
risen and fallen
from melting ice fields
in warming seas
I may never see.
The connection
between heat and ice
is broken off the glacier
of frozen hearts
in heated despair.
And we, blinded by glare
of the too-strong sun
are too blind now
to see.
Filed under POETRY
WE DON'T DO THINGS BY HALF, By Louise Annarino, July 6, 2012
WE DON’T DO THINGS BY HALF, BY Louise Annarino, July 6, 2012
It is 7:35 AM. It is 75.3 degrees; humidiity 87%; heat index 80.2 degrees. We expect records to be broken a second day in a row, with high temperature of 100…or more. Who knows anymore? Yesterday, Columbus broke the record high temperature set in 1911. We are now accustomed to reading 100 degrees on our car and home thermometers, no matter what the official figures are. We trust it will be too hot to care if the weatherperson hits the mark or not. It will be hot. Too hot. That is all we know.
Yesterday, I spent almost 2 hours at the Columbus Zoo with my teenage nephew. The temperature was 100 degrees; heat index 110. We don’t do things by half. The heat has made our judgment faulty. We had left a WATER exhibit at COSI to see how the animals were faring at the zoo. We forgot we are human animals. We thought ,for once, the polar bears might be in the water instead of sleeping on the rocky outcropping in their display area. Only one was on display, sleeping on the rocks with water to swim in mere inches away. The water was too hot. We are saving polar bears from global warming’s melting polar ice by placing them near water too hot to swim in at the zoo. Nice save.
We walked slowly, from mister to mister, viewing animals much smarter than ourselves, curled motionless in shady nap spots while we walked the sun alive on the pavement beneath our feet. The heat has made us stupid. The misters lost moisture before the beads of water could touch our faces. It was too hot for water to last. Consider that it is too hot for water to last, too hot for H2O to stay beaded together until our bodies can use it for sustenance or comfort. The WATER exhibit at COSI explains water’s use and effect, and the threat of its loss . We saw COSI’s message played in real time at the zoo. It is an uncomfortable reality that water is being superheated beyond our ability to access it for human use. The polar bears already know this.
We don’t do things by half. Would that we could. Then,we could survive. But, we are made stupid by the heat. Our judgment is faulty. We don’t do things by half, even when our survival depends upon it. There are some whose anger with our president’s willingness to do things by half ,which he can do no other way, clouds their judgment of his abilities, his motives and his wisdom. Their over-heated rhetoric only makes a successful economic recovery less assured. His first half may have pleased no one on the far right, nor on the far left. But, it is those of us in the middle half who understand his many accomplishments, with half a Congress in support, half in opposition:
– Cut payroll taxes for all Americans,putting $40 per paycheck back in the pocket of the typical Ohioan.
– In Ohio, the manufacturing sector aded more than 33,500 jobs in last 2 years, while President Obama works to end tax cuts for companies shipping jobs overseas and lower tax rates for companies which manufacture goods in America.
– Created over4.1 million privates sector jobs, 123,000 in Ohio over the last 2 years.
– Rescued the U.S. auto industry, protecting 848,000 Ohio jobs and over 1 million jobs nationwide. US auto industry is once again #1 in the world.
– Created or extended 18 tax cuts for small businesses – the drivers of economic growth.
– Strengthened medicare, saving 185,000 Ohioans an average $512 on prescription drugs.
– Expanded access to preventive care with no out-of-pocket costs to 2.1 million Ohioans, including 559,000 children and 797,000 women under age 65.
– Stopped insurance industry practice of denying coverage for pre-existing conditions for 643,000 Ohio children.
– Expanded health care coverage to 82,000 young adults by allowing them to stay on parents’ health care plans until age 26.
– Required Insurance companies who failed to spend at least 80%-85% of premiums collected on health care to return an average of $127 to 3.4 million Americans who paid for their own insurance. Over $1 billion dollars will be paid back nationwide.
– Reduced our dependence on foreign oil to lowest level in 16 years. Domestic oil production is at an 8 year high, natural gas at an all-time high, and renewable energy from wind and solar has more than doubled.
– Helped Ohio produce 9 times more electricity from wind in 2011 than in 2010.
– Signed VOW to Hire Heroes Act, providing tax breaks to businesses hiring returning veterans.
– Brought Iraq war to honorable end, and is working towards same goal in Afghanistan.
– Brought 2/3 of Al Qaeda’s leadership, and Osama Bin Laden to justice.
– Ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
– Doubled funding for Pell Grants. Signed into law a tax credit up to $10,000 over 4 years to help middle class families afford tuition.
– Supported 12,500 teachers and school staff jobs in Ohio 2009-2010, reducing burden on local school districts.
The list of accomplishments made by doing things by half – with the support of half the Senate, half the House goes on and on. We are out of the hole and moving forward after years of digging the hole deeper under Republican leadership. We Americans don’t like doing things by half. But, when we must do so, it is good to have a president who knows how to do so effectively. Hopefully, more progressive Democratic candidates will be elected to the US House and Senate more fully supporting President Obama during his second term. Don’t like doing things by half? Then, vote for Sherrod Brown for US Senate. Vote for the Democratic candidate in your congressional race. Vote for Barack Obama. Don’t let the heat of Republican attacks distort your ability to think straight and move the country forward.
Filed under POLITICS
annarino writes 