Extreme Green #poetry #earthweal

I want
extreme birdsong
extreme green
am fortunate to find
these things surround me

I see
extreme anger
in the eyes of drivers
cursing traffic cues
and burning fuel, going nowhere as
I, bicycling, fly by

Extreme clouds pile high
in Northern skies
billow upon billow
rattling out
peal upon peal
of angry thunder

Extreme rain
sends bricks and mortar down the drain:
where will we live then?
Even the third little pig 
was unprepared for this big wild wolf
coming

I gather hope
as I head out again
into my realm of
extreme green
delight in birds still thriving
bees still humming.

© 2022 experimentsinfiction.com. All Rights Reserved.

Written for earthweal

This week, Brendan has challenged us to ‘write about the everyday extreme:’

For me there a fundamental reckoning is called for, personally and collectively: If human mastery is a peril the Earth cannot afford and we value our continued existence on this planet, then we had better find systematic ways to reject human mastery. Let’s banish controls heedless of consequence and re-calibrate our fear of the unknown as faith in humility. Fossil-fuel dependence is an addiction, digital mind’s an abomination: From those starting points we may eventually gestate something in the human spirit that will reverse the hockey stock before life is finished on Earth As they say with the Tao, to and fro goes the way — even, perhaps, with the perverse Tao of our maddening reality.

52 thoughts on “Extreme Green #poetry #earthweal

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  1. we had better find systematic ways to reject human mastery. Let’s banish controls heedless of consequence and re-calibrate our fear of the unknown as faith in humility: Aww and this is exactly what you shared in your poem. Aww. Tremendous. Thank You. Xoxo

  2. I love extreme green .. 💚🌏🌻💚
    “After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.”
    “Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth”.
    – – -Walt Whitman – – –

  3. Some wonderful visuals here, Ingrid. I particularly like ‘traffic cues’ – a lesser writer would have gone straight to ‘queues’, but not you. Thoughtful and thought inspiring, as ever.

  4. It feels like everything is becoming more extreme – climate anxiety and climate denial, poverty and luxury, politics…everybody needs some of that extreme green – to calm the soul and bring us a little peace.

  5. I love that you bicycle, Ingrid. Bike friendly cities are the best! Many benefits for individuals and the climate. Also makes it easier to stop and take photos of gorgeous gardens. 😍 Lovely poem and important message.

  6. beautiful imagery Ingrid and vivid colors and extremes waking us up to think.
    Love the 3 little pig analogy “Even the third little pig
    was unprepared for this big wild wolf
    coming”. So true! Nicely done! 💖💖

  7. The early modern alchemist/ physician Paracelcus thought like cured like. Extreme green is the physic here — luxurious doses of chlorophyl to rein the mastering mind.

  8. I love the idea of extreme green. ANd the images of you flying along on your bike. And the power of nature in the bricks and mortar being washed away. And then you turn back to the green again. I too find so much comfort in being in nature.

  9. Like you I finding hope and solace in the beauty of the natural world. The human world is a mess! Your poem says eloquently.

  10. I want to surround myself my extreme green and birdsong. Such a lovely image verses the destruction we are creating to this one of a kind planet.

  11. Extreme Green sounds so appealing, Ingrid! It is rapidly disappearing, and the world will be the worse for its disappearance. I love your poem with its unusual images and metaphors and its wise message. <3

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