Poetry event 

Sunday 25th September 

2-4 p.m  at

The Little Green Dragon Alehouse, 

Winchmore Hill, London, N21 2AD

Mary Duggan Christine Vial - 2 excellent poets are reading.

Plus the Rev Mark Meacher and Melanie Smith.

I've been asked to read one 'eco' poem ..

Turn and Face Medusa

 Rhino horns, Elephant tusks, Lion hunts

a red mist descends, a hopeless paralysis

 Plastic plastic everywhere

·       Bags on the street

·       Bags in the sea

·       Microplastic we drink, fish swallow, we eat

·       Shrink-wrapped cucumber

·       Plastic bottles – oceans of them

·       Recycling, biodegrading, burning

·       Dump our recycling far away

to pollute distant lands, out of sight, not our problem.

Water, water – drying out

climate catastrophe.

Extinction rebellion

 

I go into overwhelm and switch off

pull the duvet over my head

close down, turn away, block my ears

 

More plastic bottles,

coffee cups with plastic lids.

Where to put my cat food pouches?

 

The search for biodegradable bin bags, wet wipes?

Eco-footprints, carbon footprints

Air travel, diesel engines,

disappearing rainforests,  rainforests disappearing … for ever.

 

Species go extinct,

palm oil in Bisto gravy browning

plastic factories making more and more and more,

and wet wipe mounds pollute the beaches.

 

Open your minds, open your eyes

Open your hearts.  Face the truth!

 

Turn, turn, turn to face Medusa.

 

Anna Meryt

7 July 2019

 

Inspired by a talk by Joanna Macey (Active Hope) Environmentalist.

Medusa – the Gorgons  from Greek mythology, hair made of venomous snakes, those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone.