Talking Truth – Creative responses

All artworks belong to respective owners. If you would like to submit a piece inspired by the Talking Truth mission and climate justice, send an email to jncote@umass.edu

POETRY:

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“Untitled”
Spring comes,
buds pop
in peach orchards,
witch hazel on the pink.
And then
ice blossoms,
suspends hope of fruit,
of plenty.
My neighbor frets
for the coming
life, the bluebird’s egg.
-By Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham
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“Untitled”
The planet is burning – so I sit
The planet is melting – so I sit
The animals are dying – so I sit
The water is poisoned – so I sit
When I sit, I feel me
When I sit, I own me
When I sit, I am curious attentive sleepy sad timeless distilled ageless annoyed uncomfortable joyful and wise
I rise from my cushion with all my parts bundled neatly inside and go out into the world to help lead the change.
-By Madeleine Charney
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(Erasure Poem. Poet first writes one version, then erases parts
to create a second version of the poem with a different meaning.)
“Untitled”
Our challenges to saving the world are never ending.
They are growing every day.
With every new climate denier, put in charge of the EPA, or the State Department, our challenges grow.
The CO2 released every day, how much?
Too much.
More and more.
Killing the coral reefs, warming and acidifying the oceans, moving species, already stressed, to the brink.
Trees can’t sequester fast enough, especially while we clear cut the Amazon for hamburgers.
Industrial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, homicides.
How many animals do we kill each day?
How uninhabitable do we make the earth?
All I do is talk and continue to use my electricity, my car, my luxuries…
All contributing to killing the world, when all I want to do is save it.
(And the positive evolution:)
Saving the world
Growing everyday
Climate in charge of the EPA
Grow
Everyday
More and more
Coral reefs, oceans, species, trees, the Amazon
Animals
The Earth
Talk and continue
The world
All I want to do is save it.
-By Lena Fletcher
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Part 1

Speechless in the face of ignorance, greed, and misanthropy.
Watching the ice melt into mud and thinking all the world will soon be mud – no, we’ll be lucky if there is even any mud left.
The we will be water bears and roaches.

Meanwhile, watching the rampant destruction horrifies and destroys us. I’m amazed how many still carry on with their lives, not wanting to know or think or feel, escaping into shopping malls and tv shows.

Part II (Poem by erasure)

In the face of greed and misanthropy
Ice melts into mud
Soon all the world will be
Water bears and roaches

Meanwhile
watching us
I’m amazed how many
Still carry on
wanting to know, think, feel
While I escape
Into shopping malls and tv shows

Part III Declaration

Resist
Rest
Reach out
Show up
Trust yourself
Embrace the gift of things
Move
Move with the center
Don’t Panic (Douglas Adams)

-By Fern
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Erasure Poem. Poet first writes one version, then erases parts
to create a second version of the poem with a different meaning.)
“Middle”
System defaults to truth.
Lifestyles make happy, healthy.
Profit can be sacrificed.
I do more.
Our country realizes they bankrupt our future.
Where to go from here?
Walk a mile… Then be.
“Final”
I push back on system defaults,
Helping the powerful awaken to truth.
Profit is sacrificed for happy lives.
Doing more by being.
-By Laurie Simmons
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