What it is to be Alive
What is dread, and
How do we transcend it?
The unsettling sublime
Of personal apocalypse?
What are we saying?
We all know
What it is
We are thinking,
When will the Climate
Event come to pass?
When will we
Be able to say
We are on the other side?
Same time, while
Our thoughts glide across
The storm-filled sky of our mind,
We might see
The clouds of dawn
Are lit gradiently
Blue-grey,
Deep purple,
Bright pink.
And do we not see hope?
We are tired.
We want for sleep.
We worked too hard
Of late.
We are looking
At our phones.
We have not felt
The sunrise fully.
We are worried
Beyond worry,
Certain of an overwhelming
Incertitude,
So concerned
About what will be --
The climate disaster --
That we miss today
What already concerns us,
Our role to play
In the ongoing
Drama.
We are born (we all know it)
In media res
With much already passed
& So much yet to come.
We do not yet (quite) know
The plot; we cannot tell
(Yet) Whether we will be
The detective,
The victim or
the villain.
Do we not want to live long?
Our lives begin with pain,
With screaming. It shows
We are alive.
The evidence
We cannot remember,
Only is it told to us
By witnesses
After.
Yet we know it.
By our living, we know
We were born once.
It was a
Painful beginning.
Who wouldn't want to be born?
How could we ever want to wish it away?
The sign of pain being "too much to bear" is
A sign pointing us to
The "need for more support."
We need more support.
We were born held
In the arms of others.
Where will it come from today?
How will we find support?
If we all, Medusa'd by dread,
Stand paralyzed in lines
Waiting.
Waiting,
For someone to tell us
What to do.
Live! g*d d*MN it.
LIVE
with all the pain
We've inherited
& Consumed
& Digested
& Seen
& Felt
& Feared
& Lived with
Every day
Already.
It's simple, really.
Let's take a look around:
The climate is
The environmental
Context within which
We have been
Living within already
Forever
(Since the Beginning).
It's the architectural Home
(Architected by whom?
You see the uncertainty?
Architected by everyone,
Maybe, and by everything?)
We are lucky to live within.
It's the conditions
We're born with,
The context around us,
-- did we call it Home? But then,
Is it not obvious?
We take care of our Home.
Of course we do.
It's a matter of energy.
When Mother came Home
Late from the Office
Fatigued by all she needed to do
& did already,
Did she wash the dishes
After preparing the meal,
& Wipe the table,
& Sweep the floor,
& Fold the laundry,
& Refresh the sheets
On the beds
In every room,
& Spin away
Every cobweb
In every corner
Of the ceiling,
& Scrub away
The grit caught
In the cracks
Of the bathroom,
& Dust off
The mantle
& Rearrange
The books on the shelf
& Put away the toys
& Brush our teeth
& Beat the rugs
& Wash the windows
& Push in the chairs
& Tidy the drawers
& Calm our nerves
With a story
Before tucking herself into bed
To sleep?
No!
& Yet -
Did it never get done?
The caring for Home?
Eventually,
We will find the energy
To clean home,
Our home,
To care for the climate
& For ourselves
Amidst the changes.
We have been finding it (the energy) already.
Last year global energy demand
Was met and exceeded
By renewables. (Fact.)
Don't believe the hype;
Research it for yourself.
The world has always been changing.
We will embrace it!
The sun has set now?
We will watch it rise.
The bees and bugs are dying.
Do we know why?
And can we do something
To help? Maybe your thing is
Whales. Maybe it's burrowing owls.
Maybe you think it's weird
To count the trees in cities,
To check their soils,
Measure the thickness of their trunks.
Maybe the study of the movement
Of a starling flock is weird.
Or maybe for you it's wild,
Wildly fascinating.
Let us attend to
The fascinating changes,
So many happening
All around us all the time,
Everything everywhere all at once...
Let us look around.
We will (almost) forget
The dread.