Thanks to the many poets and
readers who have submitted texts,
images and links to
climate-change related sites. A selection had to be made for this
issue, not an easy task.
PLT Interactive is available for further posts: Just log in, reload and click on "create content" to publish your ad, comment, poll, blog entry or book entry.
Featured poets this month include --in random order: Geraldine Moorkens Byrne, Gordon Ramel, Len Bourret, Ian Thorpe, Taylor Graham, Jim Dunlap, Deborah P Kolodji, David Harrington and Ed Kostro.
Please scroll down the page.
PLT Interactive is available for further posts: Just log in, reload and click on "create content" to publish your ad, comment, poll, blog entry or book entry.
Featured poets this month include --in random order: Geraldine Moorkens Byrne, Gordon Ramel, Len Bourret, Ian Thorpe, Taylor Graham, Jim Dunlap, Deborah P Kolodji, David Harrington and Ed Kostro.
Please scroll down the page.
Results
for our last
Readers'
Poll: Top rated poems were those published by Jim Dunlap.
All poems will be found in PL&Times
July 2007~Featured Poets.
This was our last poll for this summer: the section is now under revision.
| ____________________ Gordon Ramel is a scientist who has "come to poetry as a scientist." His university degrees are in ecology. He won a first poetry prize at the age of 14, but didn't really find "time to water the seeds of creativity" until he was 43. His poem "Darkness" is based on what might be called a "waking vision". *
Published
by The Hypertexts: Further Reading
Gordon J.L. Ramel is a well-published poet who also holds a Master's Degree in the Ecology of Soil Arthropods from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. "Tiger, Tiger Fading Fast": Further Reading |
GORDON RAMELDarkness As yet another dolphin dies a voice I cannot see calls out "Enough. Enough. I will not let this be." And a dark cloud quickly rises from deep within the sea as a beast with many shapes takes form in front of me, its arms raised to the heavens in prayer or else in plea. A thought inside me whispers. "Be careful child, take care. this is no normal summer storm that is abrewing there." The atmosphere around me is heavy with despair. There's a shiver down my spine and static in my hair. From the beast a voice of thunder shreds the fragile air. "Behold I Am the Darkness. And I am the pain of a thousand species dying and of one that is insane. Enough! Enough, I say again. Let retribution come to those who live with such disdain." The air is full howling and the beast becomes forlorn defeated by an anguish that never can be borne; it drops its mighty head and arms as if about to mourn. Then a gentle breeze arises and shreds the bitter storm, in just the way the rising sun dispels a mist at dawn. A barrage of emotions sweeps across my timid soul; I find that I am crying, weeping tears I can't control. For all at once I know our planet as a living whole and I see how hard it is to live without a greater goal and know how far we have to go to fill our promised role. A quiet voice speaks next, across the troubled sea: "The story is not finished, and you must let it be. Though they have left your world, they're living still with me. You cannot stop them dying so long as life is free. So return now to your dreaming and let the living be." The darkness then descended to the molluscs and the krill; The sun once more was warming, the waters calm and still, and I wondered at the gentleness of such a mighty will. Yet my heart within me trembled and I felt a sudden chill, remembering the ease with which humanity can kill. Then I heard the darkness bellow from deep beneath the brine. "The innocent may well be yours, but the guilty will be mine." And I heard the daylight answer as clearly as sunshine: "It is only for a little while that you will call them thine, then they, like you, will come to me, for this is my design." October
6, 2004
 Footnotes to "Darkness" by Gordon Ramel
|
_______________________
|
Early Global Climate Warning? by Len Bourret (Copyright 2007) Noctilucent, "night-shining" clouds, are so engaging, so bright, yet from darkest depths of polar regions, constantly on the move, their travels so far-ranging, attracting the curiousity of researching legions, with signs that earth's atmosphere is changing, indications of cloud alterations that are so clear, not understanding how, why, or what they mean, causing consternation, worry, and fear on the earth, as well as 50 miles above the earth's surface, in the upper layer's mesosphere, appear like soft cottonballs of water vapor, scatters of moonlight or sunlight in different angles, reflect and refract, bouncing off ice crystals in the atmosphere, displaying spectacular sightings of exquisite halos, above northern and southern hemisphere's poles, akin to the technicolor images of prismic rainbows, so how much are these conclusions worth? figuring out why the "night-shining" clouds form, how the clouds relate to global climate variance, as compared to a global climate norm. ________________________ Link: www.livescience.com/environment/070628_night_clouds.html A new NASA satellite has recorded the first detailed images from space of a mysterious type of cloud called “night-shining” or “noctilucent." The clouds are on
the move, brightening and creeping out of polar regions, and
researchers Humans Use Almost One-Quarter of the
Sun's Solar Energy... |
________________________ JIM DUNLAP Jim is in the Marquis, Who's Who In America, the Marquis Who's Who In The World and in the Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. His list of publications include Candelabrum, Lyrical Iowa, Mind in Motion, Mobius, Neovictorian, Paris/Atlantic, Plainsongs, Potpourri, Prophetic Voices, Sonnetto Poesia, and online on Poems Niederngasse, Poetry Life & Times, Poetry Repair Shop and many more. He is a resident poet, and an Alpha poet at the Poet's Porch, and has had about six hundred poems published to date. He has been in the Writer's Digest top 100 three times, and is currently Research Editor For Sonnetto Poesia. Click here for Jim's website His work also appears online at: authorsden.com http://www.aceonline.com.au/~db/ http://www.valmagnuson.com/ and in a number of other places as well. His website is : http://www.mindfulofpoetry.homestead.com/ & http://allpoetry.com/user/show/ecrivain01 Read more: A Recent Interview with Jim Dunlap |
Fable MajeureGreat Jupiter swings majestically in orbit around the sun – the Earth flies just as freely, When all is said and done. But once upon a time they spoke of relevance and size. "You're puny, just a paltry joke," said Jupiter, to Earth's surprise. "Why come to that", the Earth shot back, "You're just a bloated ball of gas." Jupiter said, "Such spiteful flack" from a planet so sadly short on mass." "Well, I have something you've not got", the Earth shot back at once. "Here, intelligent life has found a spot". "My, it's obvious that you're a dunce" said Jupiter with unholy glee. "They're parasites. Just shake them off. I'd never allow such creatures on me." "Your gravity's enormous", Earth gave a cough; "and the heat and poison gases prove you need a personality overhaul." Jupiter snorted, "Get back in the groove. Your cheery attitude's starting to pall." Earth laughed. "My humans may do great things. I'll be known to the ends of the Universe." Jupiter sneered: "When the fat lady sings, your situation will hardly be worse. You've been sacked, looted and plundered; you'll have nothing at all left to give." Then Earth said, "I've often wondered if you'll ever really find out how to live." Jupiter said, "Don't waste sympathy on me. All that I've told you is patently true. When time finally dies, I'll be here to see. Pollution and greed will eradicate you." Thoughts On Global Warmingfor Linda AllbrittenMy friend and I disagreed over what to do about global warming. California passed a law to require automakers to fix cars so they don't emit so many pollutants. I said we need such a law. She says people should just be responsible, and we wouldn't need laws like that. Ta dum. Ta dum. In a perfect world, that would be true. But in a perfect world, we wouldn't be having the conversation. Author notes: I was talking to a friend about California's law on pollutant emissions and we disagreed about it. I then sat down and wrote this. Written April 2nd, 2005 A Bad LandingGreen hills against a cobalt sky, And sunlight, pure as molten gold -- One day of many streaming by -- A starship accidentally shoaled Upon a long-forgotten world. No trace of man remained at all In valleys deep or seashores pearled. No one extant to hear its call. An ice age covered every trace That time had not obliterated -- The home of one eccentric race Whose destruction was self-orchestrated. Polluted water, poisoned land, Destruction on a worldwide scale -- The race that died by its own hand Had left no one to tell the tale. A million years elapsed, and yet No normal life could thrive and grow; And each day as that great sun set Marked one more that man would never know. Previously
published in Pablo
Lennis, 1992
Another Victim Of Global WarmingWill some future storm be the vehicle Of the Gulf's liquified penetration, And New Orleans suffer the fate Of titanic and swift inundation? Might Mardi Gras fade into memory And carnival flourish no more; While new marine denizens frolic, And aquatic, finned creatures soar? One envisions Neptune trailing banners Of seaweed festooned with pale lights Of luminescent and tiny sea creatures (the souls of long gone water sprites?). Storefronts will grow green with algae As barnacles sprout on their walls. Bright-colored fishes will gather in schools To explore water-logged shopping malls. Multi-tentacled, ink-spewing octupi Might pass like cops strolling their beat: Some people may say "not much has changed." There'll still be sharks on Bourbon Street. Written
in 1995, Now published by Autumn Leaves and Poetry Life and Times.
c. All poems by Jim Dunlap, 2007. |
