The oceans rise and temperatures rocket,

But we have the answer in our pocket.

A glossy document, signed and dated –

Oh, come on, you should be elated –

In which we promise to slightly reduce

The poisonous discharges we let loose.

Not straight away, of course, you understand;

There are more pressing urgencies at hand.

Nearby, a man sinks down beneath the waves;

His ...

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The hottest year ever, again;

We’re pigging out on greenhouse gases.

COP Twenty-Eight will be here soon,

That shamefest of chancers and asses.

The leaders set themselves targets,

Then contrive to miss them by miles,

Seasoning failure with blah-blah

And their well-practiced plastic smiles.

Meanwhile, siren voices tell us:

Get out there, get out there and score!

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I block the traffic in the road;

And chain my body to railings,

To illustrate the catalogue

Of governments’ climate failings.

I march in the demonstrations,

Sit down on the Minister’s lawn,

To give some hope to the children

And those who have not yet been born.

Last month I was twice arrested,

For challenging this dirty game.

Fines and days in court are...

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I am a molten man;

My flabby, molten face

Is looking up at you

As you beam down from space.

I used to look quite nice

When common sense ruled here,

In times we did not trash

The assets of this sphere.

You visitors would see

A smart, contented Earth,

Which knew instinctively

How to respect its worth.

But sadly man has struck

And chopped and grou...

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summer brings slurries
wicked sticky sleet drops
puddling, pooling, icicles dripping
slush gushes from the frosted rooftops
winter heat fries the egg
cracked on rocky road
melting the cream
burning the orange cone
Melbourne Falls, darkness dawns
sixty days of night
madness in the streets
kingdom of crime
Tamura Springs, sky rains cancer
the sakura flower lost
our beautiful reminder
...

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ReMember the Night

How can you go meekly into the night 

When your world no longer gently goes around?

How can you go meekly into the night

When lives of who you cherish depend on you being wise?

Do you forget that in the beginning time started?

And yet this time has an end as so do you.

For if you have, forget not that all times have their moments besides one Holy one

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Faith begins on the edges of understanding 

Faith begins on the edges of understanding

Let me please then fall into this abyss of source where Faith is.

A surfacing, peace filled trove glimpsed first amidst a raging wind,  

its past buried deep by the residue of age old minds.

One personal confrontation, not new yet rediscovered,

Connected to the gentleness of a longed ...

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We’re all for fighting climate change,

Until the choice gets tough;

Don't try to meddle with our cars,

Our holidays, our stuff.

What beats the smell of petrol fumes,

The whiff of kerosene,

The closet full of unworn clothes,

The cinema-sized screen?

We'll stand behind the barricades

To fight off this green crap,

And watch the lifestyle we deserve

Fall stra...

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Judgement day comes for an apian hive
On the threshold, will it die or survive?
The Bee's priority is the unhoneyed comb
Unaware of the finality of her home,

What harms one bee, ruptures the greater whole,
Their shared destiny, the colony's goal.
The bee is the hive's cooling, beating heart.
Each tiny winged creature, a precious part,

What threatens the hive may destroy the bees
Confl...

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I’m baffled how world leaders find the nerve 

to sign a pledge, then right before our eyes

fail the people they pretend to serve.

They know the price of oil but never swerve

from drilling more while greenhouse gases rise.

I’m baffled how world leaders find that nerve!

They buy the myth of endless growth, the oeuvre 

of economic frauds who feed them lies,

and fail ...

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Flags and placards round Big Ben

say 

PAUSE! PAUSE!

Shouts and chants of Waddawewant?

a 

PAUSE! PAUSE!

We call a pause on oil and then

we all lie down. We stand up again.

We shout demands at Parliament 

to 

PAUSE! PAUSE!

No new gas! No new oil!

PAUSE! PAUSE!

One point five degrees soon gone.

PAUSE! PAUSE!

Arctic in meltdown, blood on the boil,

w...

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Rolling down to london on a train,

the taught and shining buds

of Spring are bursting on the trees.

Wharfedale’s misted in a bluish haze,

but heaps of plastic refuse in the woods

on the drab periphery of Leeds

descend my mood from buoyancy to pain.

Rolling forwards now, the rape fields blaze

and blackthorns bloom with pearls,

resplendent in the boundary hedges

we...

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There was a man lived down my street

who felt unease about pollution.

Ashamed to see his car excrete

bad air, he found an odd solution.

Others who had thought thus far 

used bicycles, or electric cars

but my neighbour’s mate was the man who sold

the fuel his thirsty motor drank.

He was fearful this friend’s business might fold 

if he stopped putting petrol in the ta...

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So when we shoot past two degrees

and all the land is toast

and skies are black from the burning trees

what will you miss the most?

Me, I’ll miss the song of birds

that welcomed in the day:

those heart-rending, incoherent words

that had so much to say.

And when the heating of the ocean

flays the coral reefs,

will you temper your emotion?

Modulate your gri...

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The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind  -  Bob Dylan

What force can power the years ahead?

Now the age of oil is dead

we wait for industry to heed 

the whisper of the wasted wind,

the whisper of the wasted wind.

A pivotal crisis is upon us

and ready or not we shoulder the onus. 

We must make good or else be goners,

be dust dispersed by the wasted wind,

...

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What hope remains while politicians skirt

around the crisis, pledging they will shut

a few polluting plants but token cuts

in fossil fuel extraction fall so short?

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Back when I was young I didn’t fear:

I knew the world could solve this situation.

We understood the cause, so the way out was clear:

a comprehensive pact between all nations 

to stop emitting CO2 

into the atmosphere.

Back then there seemed no need to march and shout,

to sit down in the road and press for truth.

We could not conceive of a climate up the spout.

In th...

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Every gob of oil we suck today,

every turd of coal we flame resplendent,

every age-old species we erase 

is assault against our own descendants.

I stoop before the few that reach tomorrow:

striving to live, I understand how they

must curse us, dodging lethal hails of arrows   

we senselessly let fly today.

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