Flight and the Environment feature in this year’s poems:
Feathers for Flight by Harmonie
Whitfield State SchoolBirds are feathered, birds are light
Their wings are wide; their legs are slight
Their eyes give them superior sight
But how does this all aid their flight?Their contour feathers catch the breeze
And help them ride the draught with ease
Some pretty plumes are made to please
While down makes sure those birds don’t freeze!Their feathery wings can fan out wide
In order to assist their glide
But when those feathers want to hide
They come to rest on either side.Protruding peepers both are set
On either side of a birds head
These eyes don’t see just straight ahead
But each side and behind instead!My fact-file’s not yet reached its close
To ensure your avian knowledge grows
Did you know that each bird owns
A set of lightweight hollow bones?
My Flying Bubble by Coco
Whitfield State SchoolOnce upon a flying time
Atop my little roof
A bubble gave a muffled chime
By popping with a poof!Its soapy droplets sprinkled down
And cleaned my jewellery.
And if I was a dusty crown
Now sparkling bright I’d be!
Busy Buzzing by Ava
Whitfield State SchoolI’m buzzing past
an apple tree.
You’re stuck in the grass
and can’t squash me!Gravity
pushes you to the floor.
With wings so pretty
I move much more.A flower or five
sucking nectar that’s runny
then back to the hive
to make more honey.When Keeper is through
taking our wax
and honey too
we’ll buzz GIVE IT BACK!
A Long Way From Home by Jonathon
Whitfield State SchoolThe Moon is dipping out of sight.
My spacecraft is currently in flight
orbiting Earth so very high
like a diamond in the sky.Travelling towards the stars
the only planet in sight is Mars.
But soon my flight must come to an end
so I can spend time with my friends.
Rainbow Birds by Tabitha
Whitfield State SchoolGraceful creatures in the sky
flapping their wings as they fly by.
Circling, soaring into the blue
glimpsing the ground in tiny view.
Glimmering in the sunlight’s kiss.
Radiant in their blue abyss.
In a Flap About Flight by Evie
Whitfield State SchoolAlthough mankind has conquered the skies
with aeroplanes of every size,
despite our best scientific gains
we’ll never fly as well as planes.It seems our bird-winged counterparts
have the ideal body parts.
A balance of wingspan, weight and strength
makes perfect engineering sense!Hollow bones are strong yet light.
No wonder they are good in flight!
With an extra air sac on their lungs
a bird breathes better than anyone.Yes, we humans grow tall and strong
but our weakly wingspan is all wrong.
As much as we’d like to get it right …
humans were never designed to take flight.
Cane harvest kites by Helen Ramoutsaki
Dr Sukarma Rani Thareja is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Christ Church College, CSJM Kanpur University, Kanpur, India. She took the photo accompanying her poem near her home, depicting the first rays from the morning Sun encountering a pollutant in our atmosphere.
A Pollutant by Sukarma Rani Thareja & Celia Berrell
An uninvited guest in our atmosphere
touches my face
taunting me.“When are you leaving uninvited guest?”
I’ll count days on my fingers
and then make a wish.When I was a child I remember being told
“Don’t cook your tea
with wood on earthen stoves.Don’t throw garbage onto the roads
contaminate our rivers
like an uninvited guest.”Now I am old see through watery eyes.
My footprint ecological
has grown in size.Somehow I’ve become an uninvited guest.
I’ll count days on my fingers
and then make a wish.
Just over ten years ago, the town of Picher in Oklahoma USA was declared the most toxic place in America. It used to be a lead and zinc mining area, but the region’s natural water supplies became so poisoned with mining waste, the local creek turned red and the town’s residents became ill. Everyone had to leave. Sarah Roehrig says her new poem, inspired by these events at Picher, is a ballad about the environmental and social impact of mining.
Tar Creek Runs Red by Sarah Roehrig
Heavy, heavy song.
Rosebuds recycle rain.
Move the people upstream
And the voice of pain.Repeat, repeat, mountains recoil
Dead like the Queen of the Nile
Pitchers of souls mine the coal
Smile a smile all the while.The backhoe pulls, rolling right
Cut through the plug
Blood stains the biting clouds
Move the artificial light.There is no beauty nor rest here
Rivers of blood
Cold mechanical lies
Drag through the mud.Ashes fall, the fire is lit
One day they will arise
Spirit through bones, rhythm so strong
To hear their troubled cries.
Joel is 25 and believes as long as we stay true to ourselves, we will succeed in life, however crazy it may be. Thanks for sharing this touching environmental poem with us Joel.
Return to What Should Be by Joel Ewing
All the tears I’ve tasted
for so many trees we’ve wasted.
It makes me wonder; wonder why
so few of us will ever try
to relieve mankind of ignorance
and shake us from this foolish trance.
Living the way some people are,
every day creates a scar.
Although our Earth is vast and great
at healing, making all things straight,
there’s no time for the world to wait
while we create a toxic fate.
Perhaps one day mankind will see
significance in every tree;
clean rivers flowing to the sea;
with everything as it should be.
Reinhold Mangundu is an environmental activist in Namibia and youth advocate.
He writes blogs and has just started to write environmental poetry too.
A Call for a Cure by Reinhold Mangundu & Celia
Our world really needs you
to come to her rescue.
To work on a clue
of what we can do.Our fumes give her fever;
a heat-rising danger.
Her life-blood of rivers
are choking with papers.We’re losing more species
by chopping her fine trees
so birds are distressed
with nowhere to build nests.Our world really needs us;
a people that she trusts.
Please work on a clue
of what we can do.
