Wednesday, April 9Maximizing our Collective Impact

Literature

A Letter to Mother Nature- A Poem
Literature

A Letter to Mother Nature- A Poem

I should have stayed and fought for you  I pledge allegiance  Watered the flowers you gave me too,                                                             To the flag  Listened close to your favorite song                                                       Of the United States of America  The birds have stopped humming, all along                                                      And to the republic I should have stayed to heal your scars                                                     For which it stand Healed the oceans, healed the stars,                                                      One nation Protected your forests a...
Those Who Destroy – A Poem
Literature

Those Who Destroy – A Poem

My wings falter.As the pale sky crumbles to ash and dust,I feel the watchful gaze of those who came before me,And my breath becomes hollow and poisoned,As the pale sky crumbles to ash and dust,Thousands of years fade away,And my breath becomes hollow and poisoned,While I watch the earth burn to fragments of its past beauty. Thousands of years fade away,She screams, “My children! What have you done?”While I watch the earth burn to fragments of its past beauty. Soft wails fill the sky with meaningless dark.She screams, “My children! What have you done?”The ice fills my heart and I begin to writhe in pain at the sight.Soft wails fill the sky with meaningless dark.And once again I’m frozen,The ice fills my heart and I begin to writhe in pain at the sight.I feel the watchful gaze of those who c...
Literature

Shrouded Poem

Photo Credits: Environmental Justice Is Our Cry of Defense Ricardo Levins Morales By Ariana Thornton Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,  Richmond, California, Cancer Alley of Louisiana, and more are covered by a funeral shroud—smoke plaguing from nearby oil, gas, and plastic plants, festering in low-income communities, Black and Brown bodies, to produce asthma, lung disease, heart disease,  strokes. Take the hours-long drive to Great Falls now, and watch comfortably spaced houses of suburban neighborhoods dissolve into acres of woodlands, expanses of lawns (well-manicured, green), beautiful mansions in the richest, most coveted zip code in Virginia, where well water is clear and forest air is fresh, where children ...
A Tree Story– Flash Fiction
Literature

A Tree Story– Flash Fiction

By Yossi Rosen Prologue: Once upon a time, in a forest in California, a tree thinks, Drawing breaths and weaving a floral wreath of recollection. Fallen leaves, a sudden drop in the woods, from one to two to innumerable others. Pressed down against this identity as a template of what was, what could have been, an application of pressure. Like a mosaic of this and that and when and who. A fallen branch rippling in introspection. Afterward, out of consideration, the tree is incinerated. Sometime after a most curious boy thinks.  Chapter 1: My nanny, a hipster mom of three, thought it was sacrilegious to pass trees or any form of wildlife without worrying about them, like ignoring the facts, science even. Don’t be so blasé she would say, and I would respond, Stop being such a pedan...
Untitled
Literature

Untitled

By Quinn Lauden a beam of light sets slowly over a sharp rigidly beautiful mountain but it has yet to rise again we are stuck in the dark in the smoke we are searching for air but are guided by suits with dollars for eyes whose goal just is not the same the seas, the fields, the skies, the tides, are being taken over by ignorance by shortsighted vision for the green of a paper, for the benefit of an account, of a status and this beauty of the world that surrounds us is lessening. the trees are not as colorful the grass is not as green the oceans, not as clear. And all the while Creatures disappear people starve and suffer we fear of losing life nevertheless, the world responds. light strikes stronger the world blows at us harder and the tears of the earth pound aiming to kill...
Do you?
Literature

Do you?

By Julianne Park Do your lips crack when you stand at the podium the way the ground cracks beneath our feet, dry from ferocious heat waves and blistering winds? Do you reach over to sip the water we never had, because the grass for your green lawns and bentgrass are drowning from sprinklers so you can get a hole-in-one? Do you hear the sound of children screaming and houses burning and fire alarms blaring and families weeping or is your luxurious extravagant mansion sound proof too? Do your tear ducts fill with tears and trickle down those cold gray cheeks because you destroy the lives of millions and our futures? —or it is because your stock plummeted and the cash sitting in your vault is not growing fast enough? By Elson Bankoff