Barbara's Meanderings

Photo for "Earth"

Photo for "Evening"

April 21, 2010

According to the doctors

Something is lurking in your
body causing your calcium level
to rise and they don’t know what it is.
They placed you on an IV that beeps
and drips drops of saline solution
into your body to flush out the poison
The water pushes through
like a roaring brook through your
blood seeking out and pushing
forward granules of calcium
Water in and water out
as your voice strengthens and
your mind clears until a shadow
of the man I knew glimmers there
in the distance.

Can they find the culprit?
They are confident they say
They have alternatives with treatment
they say if there is something there
for them to treat. In the meantime we
wait as if our lives were one large
waiting room until the answer is found
and the veiled presence of your true
being lays beneath the hoarse
voiced man in the extra large hospital
gown who barks orders and sits on
the edge of the bed, head leaning
forward as his eyes close.
copyright 2010 by Barbara Ehrentreu


Poem for Day 22

April 22, 2010

Earth

My feet sink into the sand on the beach
The soil’s fertile loam nourishes brilliant flowers
along the fence.The air caresses my cheeks
I walk along the water’s edge admiring
black billed ducks and the curve of swan’s
necks gliding along the surface of the water

Meanwhile on a rapidly diminishing ice floe
polar bears struggle to find food
Their cubs hunted to the point of extinction
Baby seals are clubbed to death while their
mothers unable to destroy the predators
watch in horror

An oil rig has an explosion creating an oil slick
sure to destroy helpless sea creatures swimming
by the alien structure. In rainforests loggers cut a swath
through the majestic trees cutting the air supply
of millions for years. Meanwhile people cry for the
preservation of our animals and our land

The earth is our home
Would you allow someone to come into
your house and kill your children?
Destroy your plants, spill oil on your carpet
and in your bathwater?

The earth exists, though there are questions as to why or how
It isn’t pleasant everywhere. She has her problems, such as
erupting volcanoes, hurricanes slamming down trees, noreasters
shattering glass and uprooting trees,earthquakes burying thousands
creating ruins in seconds.
It’s earth
We accept her faults like we would a loved one
Always ready to love her.
But are we ready to kick the butts of anyone
who won’t preserve her goodness?
We are the caretakers of earth and must stand
guard with drawn swords when anyone tries to
lay waste to her.
copyright 2010 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Read all the posts here. Mine will be there too.:)

Here are the Haikus:

If you look at the Earth from space you see a beautiful blue planet with patches of green and brown. It's like looking at a baby sleeping. You want to pick it up and hold it, but you know that is impossible. We have to care for the Earth as if it were our baby. We must think of ourselves as caretakers, because we will be handing it over to the coming generation and we need to keep it in good shape for them. We need to control the activities of people who don't feel this way. They are selfishly using it for their own greedy ends and they care little about how they leave it. I'm thinking about the ones who have raped the mountains of Appalachia or the companies who have come into the rain forests and stripped them of their resources, the trees. Or how about the companies who use pesticides to fight destruction of crops instead of using organic methods. They don't care about the health of the people who will eat their crops or about what using these chemicals is doing to the Earth.

We must fight these attitudes by becoming models of doing the right thing. Every time you see a company or an individual is destroying the land for their own ends you need to act. Sometimes it is as easy as signing a petition online.

In the past couple of years even when the Bush Administration was allowing companies to destroy our wilderness areas, wildlife groups sent out petitions and I signed as many as I needed to sign to preserve our wilderness areas. Preservation of these areas helps to care for the Earth. The combined power of so many people signing the same petition stopped these companies from being able to destroy our wilderness. The courts took care of them. It was a free, simple, easy way to fight back against the ones who would destroy the land. So if you get one of these petitions to sign don't think they won't work. Sign it and do the wilderness a favor. Become a member of The Sierra Club and Greenpeace. Join the African Wildlife Foundation. Help to keep animals from becoming extinct. Support as many of these kind of organizations that you can. You may get more email, but it's easy to delete the ones you don't want to read when the campaign is over. :)

An easy way to help is to recycle as much as you can. Most towns and cities have recycles added to their sanitation removal. It's so simple to stockpile your recycles and throw them out on garbage day. You can make this part of your life and your children's lives. Buy from companies that have been trying to lower their global footprint. This is a number that takes into account every activity you do to conserve energy. If you own a home consider using a more environmentally friendly insulation and using solar power for energy. Becoming Green means thinking about how what you are doing is affecting the Earth. Work on your own environmental footprint each day. Make it as low as possible. Using products from Green companies helps your footprint too. It can be as simple as changing your dishwashing detergent.

Here are ways that I have tried to lower our footprint and become more Green:

• Recycle all aluminum cans including canned goods, all glass bottles, aluminum take out tins, aluminum foil.
• Keep cardboard boxes separate and follow directions from your sanitation company for how to dispose of them.
• Recycle all magazines, flyers, catalogs, used paper of any kind, in paper bags. When you shred anything recycle the shredded pieces in a separate bag.
• Turn off any lights you are not using. Unplug appliances that are not being used.
• Replace usual cleaning products with "Green" products. One easy way is to buy dishwashing detergent actually made by Clorox that is totally natural. It works very well and is good for your hands. It's called: "green works" and comes in various scents.
• Change your cleaning liquid to one that is "Green". "green works" has products for different uses. See the website to find more. There's another very good product made by a small company called: Bio Green Clean that will clean almost anything and is safe.
• Buy organic vegetables, fruit, meats and poultry. Not only is this better for you, but these products have been grown in a way that is careful to take care of the Earth.
• Boycott products from companies that do not take care of the Earth.
• Protest anything that will destroy the environment either locally, nationally or globally.
• Take your dry cleaning to a place that uses "green" techniques. You will find that the usual dry cleaning smell is not there. Your clothes will feel and smell much better.:)

If you are using any technique that you would like to share please leave a comment here.

My usual Poem A Day post follows this one. Happy Earth Day!!!! What are you doing for Earth Day?