Poetry
The Ballad Of Mother Earth
March 27, 2019
It’s never not timely to talk about environmental issues. Climate change, deforestation, pollution- these are serious concerns that are going to have disastrous consequences for generations to come. We are being unfair to our children by leaving them with a damaged world. But there is still hope as the environment is not beyond repair and, if we act now, we can still save the Earth. In this beautiful poem, Naveen likens Earth to a young girl who has created a beautiful world in her sleep; however, it is slowly being destroyed, and along with it, so is the little girl.
A little blue-eyed girl, in a place far and surreal
Blessed with the gift of making dreams come real
Dreamt of a flower for a butterfly
Made it appear in the blink of an eye.
A bigger fish for the pond
Came from the world beyond
A bigger pond for the fish
Pop up, it did, at her wish.
She thus spent one full summer
Days on end, in a dreamful slumber
Her thoughts, then they grew large & grand
‘twas time to dream of a whole new land.
Plunge she did into the deepest sleep
And dreamt of a world with mountains steep
With singing birds and colourful bees
Animals grazing at the feet of trees.
She thus spent one full summer
Days on end, in a dreamful slumber
Her thoughts, then they grew large & grand
‘twas time to dream of a whole new land.
Lakes and rivers with water blue
Schools of fish swimming through and through
Winsome tiny kids playing in the meadow
Fretting not about today or tomorrow.
Evening skies with the blackest gloss
Stars and planets, splattered across
Spellbound by the beauty of her own paradise
She smiled, as tears rolled down her closed eyes.
Awed by the majesty of her glorious creation
Her friends & folks watched with veneration
‘Will she stop at all?’ they wondered however
Slept for so long, in the past, she had never.
Their wonder then turned into dreadful dismay
For the story of her perfect world had gone astray
Trees being slaughtered by kids who’d grown
Lakes desiccated and rivers slown.
Animals killed for pleasure’s sake
Men warring over lands, their lives at stake
The very beings she’d brought into existence
Had driven her away into obsolescence.
She had no control over her dream anymore
A fantasy had transformed into a nightmare therefore
The smile on her face had faded away
Her body shivered, skin rendered grey.
Tears of her folks, at her terrible affliction
Cries of her friends, to stop such destruction
They weren’t seen, nor heard by her very own children
Who ran amok in her world, no purpose, no direction.
Deafened by the noise of their violence, unconcerned
Blinded by the smoke from the fires that they burned
Her eyes still shut, she laid there motionless
The ones who still cared for her asked the gods to bless.
When nothing changed, they let out a loud skirl
Please heal the little girl, don’t kill a little girl.
Naveen B L
Naveen is an Aerospace Engineer working in Bengaluru. Desperate to share his thoughts in a way that keeps a reader engaged, he finds inspiration from the works of P.G. Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry. Over the last few years, he has written short stories and poems, ranging in style from garden-variety conversational to autobiographical, and in topic from typical family squabbles to science fiction, most of which have a philosophical undertone.
Read his articles, here.
POEM FOR MOTHER EARTH
The earth is our mother,
We will not have another.
There’s no better place to find
For animals, plants, mankind.
Green woods, beautiful lakes,
Nature has got what it takes.
We have to keep clean the air,
As environment everywhere.
Put an end to coal mining,
Nuclear power and fracking.
Climate concerns all nations,
Just as plastic in the oceans.
For good living day and night
Must change darkness and light.
Our planet, so wonderful blue,
We will always protect, we do!
Rainer Kirmse , Altenburg
Thuringia / Germany
With kind regards