I came across this poem last year on the On Being podcast. Written by the Pakistani climate activist Ayisha Siddiqa1, it is set against the backdrop of our current environmental crises. I find the poem holds a powerful message of the power of approaching the current crises motivated by love. There is much that has to change and policies that need to be turned around, and with that many reasons to sit in rage, but what is the future that we want and how are we approaching it, how are we building it?
ON ANOTHER PANEL ABOUT CLIMATE, THEY ASK ME TO SELL THE FUTURE AND ALL I’VE GOT IS A LOVE POEM
What if the future is soft and revolution is so kind that there is no end to us in sight.
Whole cities breathe and bad luck is bested by a promise to the leaves.
To withstand your own end is difficult.
The future frolics about, promised to no one, as is her right.
Rage against injustice makes the voice grow harsher yet.
If the future leaves without us, the silence that will follow will be an unspeakable nothing.
What if we convince her to stay?
How rare and beautiful it is that we exist.
What if we stun existence one more time?
When I wake up, get out of bed, my seven year old cousin
with her ruptured belly tags along.
Then follows my grandmother, aunts, my other cousins
and the violent shape of their drinking water.
The earth remembers everything,
our bodies are the color of the earth and we
are nobodies.
Been born from so many apocalypses, what’s one more?
Love is still the only revenge. It grows each time the earth is set on fire.
But for what it’s worth, I’d do this again.
Gamble on humanity one hundred times over
Commit to life unto life, as the trees fall and take us with them.
I’d follow love into extinction.
Ayisha Siddiqa is a Pakistani Climate justice advocate living in Coney Island, NY, a coastal area highly prone to hurricanes and floods. She is a co-founder of Polluters Out and the Executive Director of Student Affairs at FFU. On Sept 20th, 2019 she helped mobilize and lead over 300,000 students onto the streets of Manhattan demanding their governments take climate action. ↩︎
I remember when I first heard Sinead O’Connor sing. I sat up and took notice. Her haunting voice. Her first album was soon added to my collection. Over the years I have listened less of her music, not due to a change in taste, just my ebb and flow of choice of what to I’m listening to…but I still sat and and took note when she appeared in the news.
Yesterday a conversation on Micro.blog brought back memories of an episode early in my travels in 1987. In the Micro.blog conversation I wrote,
I remember hitchhiking out of Estes Park many moons ago when I was just starting my travels. From my memory the breaks weren’t working properly on the vehicle that picked me. The driver managed to slow down, but I had to run, throw my pack in and then jump in after it.
Today appears to be a big laundry day chez moi. I’m tripping over clothes, towels, sheets and a big duvet cover.
Well Tropical Storm Calvin left its calling card for us. This morning I noticed water seeping out from behind the drier. The rain had come down the drier’s vent and out onto the floor. I had to pull out the washing machine and drier to get behind there this morning. An unexpected change of plans.
Thankfully the drier appears to be OK. The cover that I put over the vent outside to prevent such things happening, obviously isn’t sufficient. Back to the drawing board.
As I write this, it is grey and misty outside and sheets of rain are being blown across the my field of vision. It has been a wet morning, off and on with the occasional break. Calvin is making its presence felt, even if the storm is pulling westwards away from the islands. A flood watch is in effect until this evening.
Tropical Storm Calvin, which started out as a hurricane in the Pacific, is arriving in Hawai’i tonight, impacting the Big Island of Hawai’i first. With that said, I feel as though its effects are starting to make themselves felt even now - sustained wind, more cloud, and more frequent rain.
As I try our Obsidian, of course I go looking for a plugin to post to Micro.blog. Thank you @otaviocc, I’m testing your plugin out now.
This morning I’m keeping an eagle eye on the live text stream on the BBC website - my only option - in order to follow the Wimbledon Men’s final. It almost ups the tension, waiting for the next message to drop.
Clean up done. Sitting quietly now.
Yesterday evening a collection of friends - kids, parents, grandparents - came over to play on the water slide that my son-in-law had constructed in a large natural bowl that sits on our property. There were a few collisions, but no injuries. My wife barbecued a delicious meal. Conversation continued into the night, while the kids (and adults) played in my step-daughter’s swimming pool next door.
This afternoon my wife and I took a two and a half mile walk in Upcountry Maui. The cloudy weather created just the right conditions for walking.
A lot of the land that we were walking by belongs to Oprah. Indeed most (all?) that is in this photograph belongs to her.
I stopped on the return leg to take a photograph looking across to West Maui, the Pacific Ocean and the island of Lana’i.
After all the praise for The Bear that I have read on Micro.blog, I took out a subscription for Hulu. I don’t regret doing so. I’m, we are thoroughly enjoying it.
On a clear night, we are blessed with a wonderful view of a star filled sky. Tonight, just before turning in, I stopped to stair up at the glittering patterns above me, and the vastness of heavens that our tiny planet sits in. I find something quite calming and humbling viewing that site.
Reupholstering a couch today. Learning as I go. Patience is one of those lessons!
Some days I wonder what I have achieved from my meditation practice? Sleepy, wandering mind, replaying that incident from yesterday.
Providing this does not become a habit as in, “great, it’s rest time,” I believe that what is gained is just showing up. There are so many other things that I (you) could be doing, and I decided to meditate. I am building a habit, building a muscle. So don’t become disillusioned if some sessions didn’t go as well as you hoped. You showed up.
