Literature – Ecosystemic Magazine

15Oct

By Mina HoltzmanNo Comments

Literature

More Than a Background

WRITER: Maya Abdullah The trees are always here, just standing around, watching the world happen. The wind moves through their leaves and nobody really notices, they don’t listen or look. The sky gets dark, night falls, and suddenly everything feels different. Sometimes nature can be pretty. Sometimes it can be scary. Sometimes it is just part of the day. But nature is more than a background to our lives. It is part of the story too. The rain stops. The leaves move with the wind. The sun rises after long nights. And the cycle will repeat, day after day.

24Mar

By Lyla BrooksNo Comments

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...

24Mar

By Emmie FishNo Comments

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...

14May

By Ema MieleNo Comments

Activism & Social Change, Literature

The Rainbow Rule – Poetry

Image courtesy of Ariana ThorntonWritten by Ema MieleRed is the color of poppies,Orange is the color of daylilies,Yellow is the color of dandelions,Green is the color of pine trees,Blue is the color of the sky,Indigo is the color of orchids,Purple is the color of lilacs,But as nature gets polluted, cut, and trashed,Our world turns dull and gray;Underneath the clouds hides a rainbow,One that our world can uncover again;Treat the Earth the way you want to be treated-The rainbow rule.

Sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial – Poetry

14May

By Audrey WuNo Comments

Activism & Social Change, Literature

Sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial – Poetry

Image courtesy of Dean OliverWritten by Audrey WuI watch the sunriseeach morning at the Lincoln MemorialIt is barely winteronly late November, but there’s a quieteeriness, a hint of knitted frostblanketingour sleeping nationI watch the sunriseand wonder what they saw when they built thiswhat they would have thought of someone like mean American, who belongs to this countryas much as it belongs to meas much as the men on those rusted copper penniesyet theirs are the faces immortalizedtheirs are the names memorializedI watch the sunrisebut it is creeping closer and closer stillthe curtain is drawingand through the tilted blindsthe light seeps through.The ground can’t be greenwhen our “Fathers” spilled the blood,crimson with each golden glare of the afterglow.When will you see thatthis nation...

14May

By Ariana ThorntonNo Comments

Activism & Social Change, Literature

The Story of Us – Poetry

Image courtesy of NASAby Ariana Thorntonwe are not the beginning.not the pinnacle of evolution as we’ve been taughtnot the center of the universe as we once believedbut one motif in the ever-growing intricacy of nature’s tapestry. nobody agrees on what makes the human condition unique among animals. our cognition? communication? intelligence?all animals feel pain,many feel fear and love,some possess an intellect similar to our own.we communicate through pheromones,we click, we whistle, we wail. we are as animal as the sea sponge, as curious as the octopus,as resourceful as the chimpanzee.so what, then, gives us–a species neither as successful as the antnor as ancient as the sea star–the right to call ourselves masters of all nature?nature has had 4.5 billion years to op...

14May

By Esme HyattNo Comments

Activism & Social Change, Literature

What Environmentalism Means to Me

Image courtesy of Margot RichardWritten by Esme HyattWhen discussing environmentalism, I think the general response is to focus on the planet. To me, however, it kindles thoughts around humans’ impact on the environment and the environment's impact on humans. I first got involved in environmentalism in 2019, when I was in middle school. What got me initially interested was not climate change’s effect on the environment, but its effect on humans. Seeing numerous articles detailing the overarching repercussions of climate change on human life made me realize how necessary it was for me and others to get involved. Ultimately, all consequences of climate change influence human life. It's the intersection of climate change and human health that I think is incredibly important. Fossil fuel...

11Mar

By Ariana ThorntonNo Comments

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 ...

28Jan

By Yossi RosenNo Comments

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...

8Nov

By Quinn LaudenNo Comments

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...