WATER.

Long ago now,
The days of our want for water.
Cracked earth parched begging wet mercy,
Clouds passing offering burlesque.

Days travelled fearing worst outcome,
Sharp at both ends of the stick.
Wishing for thunders clap,
Suspense filled fear takes hold.

Preservation timed showers,
Gardens left dying for hose.
River without liquid to waste,
City thirsty for dam quenching future.

Planning with desperate haste,
Fearing the worst brought us there.
Grey sky legion with no time to waste,
Saviour came rushing down drains.

More of the same brings gradual change,
Giving the promise of green.
Tables turn sweetly as surely they do,
Count all the years as they pass.

Fated promise of things to come,
Monsoon brings reverse of the tide.
Heaven Bursting with tears unrelenting,
Torrential clouds inundate us to hell.

Snakelike waterway swollen with drink,
Heaves under pressure then breaks.
Gushing elements and people on flight,
Scurry to save and engulf.

Eerie silence interrupted by car alarms,
Slowly the takeover begins its grip.
Desolate wastelands of waterlogged hope,
Nature claims back what we took.

Failed recognition of where we all stand,
Teach us the lessons we're tought.
Force of distruction seeks our revenge,
And warriors of mud lend their hands.

Dust settles on sun rise and sun set,
Calm returns and hope surrounds.

Mixed blessing is the gift we call water.



Copyright (c) Robyn Whittaker. 2011.

4 WARNINGS AND SENSIBLE REACTIONS

What an eventful year we have had so far here in our gorgeous state of Qld. Floods and cyclones have come and gone, and apparently we are in for more in the coming months. My thoughts go out to our communities who went through the floods in the south east and those living in the north that suffered through Yasi and sustained property losses. Thankfully there were no fatalities in this latest natural disaster that I am aware of, largely due to fore warnings and sensible reactions to mandatory evacuations.

Australia is a land of plenty and a land of weather extremes, fire, flood, droughts and storms that can whip the coast like a mistress who knows no mercy. We have over the centuries come to know it's ups and downs, ins and outs, and for the most part we accept that this is our wonderful yet at times gut wrenching island home. Some say that we are experiencing the global effects of our wayward ways of too much greed with our natural resources, while others say it is just how nature is regardless of human excess.

I think we all sense what is happening here, deep down we all know the piper is coming for payment due. Nothing is for free, even when it seems the cost is an IOU, we all pay eventually. Even the breath we breathe takes a toll on our human bodies, and oxygen starts the rust that cell by cell begins our rot. The best we can do is try to treat our bodies well, and the same should go for the planet on which we live. We all know what happens when we stuff our bodies with a life of excess, so why would we expect it would be any different for our living earth. Hiding behind a fear of a dwindling bottom line from green conversion, stops many of us from taking the steps to drastic change needed if we are to ever turn the tide on a planet in pain.

I believe Mother Nature will continue to visit us with her fury in greater ferocity each year, until we heed the warnings and co-exist with this planet and each other in total respect. We are changing for the better and evolving to be more accepting of our differences, but what good will any of this be if we destroy our only human home.


Copyright © Robyn Whittaker. 2011

"Stuffed" with Choice!

Life is full of choices: what to wear, who to love, where to live and how to live and so on as the wheel of life spins us in and out of control. Sometimes those choices take you far whilst others seem to stop you in your tracks and leave you wondering how to reverse what appears unchangeable. Superficial changes to one's appearance and lifestyle are easy to make when financial grease flows freely to the axle of your wheels and life glides along like a dream with beautiful scenery at every vantage point. Our clothing, the home we live in and the car we drive all say a lot to those passing through our scope of being and "new" is where it is at for the ones who desire the appearance of "most".

We are what we believe and thoughts become things, it has been said, and with every passing moment we are potentially the creators of what we soon will see. The world and its human inhabitants, good and bad, spin silently in space pondering the meaning of it all and wishing this power we have been told we possess, was one that automatically was ours to control. What if we were able to blend our minds in unison to positively bring about world change of any magnitude to prevent our own genocidal annihilation via the environment? Would we do it? Are we too far gone with our collective pursuits of selfish gratification to ever make the change?, or will we get to the brink of no return to face the ultimate result of over consumption on a cancerous scale.

These are the thoughts that make us conscious beings of positive and negative change, and these thoughts create the actions that have the potential to save our human ship or sink it under the waters without a trace. We live in a throw away society trained to give away what has lost style and use product designs that are cheaper to replace than fix. Stuffed with choices in a sea of obsolescence, we try to convince ourselves that the old world order of protecting values and reliability in goods is somehow going to be fully achievable again. I like to think that we can effect a new direction for us all, but after witnessing the things we discard on our footpaths and a futile phone call to an appliance repair store to fix an unfixable blender, I can only wonder.

Copyright (c) Robyn Whittaker 2010