musings, life lessons & poetry from Theresa Jarosz Alberti

Tag: pollution

Poetry Challenge Day 15: “Earth Day Sonnet”

One of the prompts this week was to write a sonnet. I haven’t written one since I can’t remember when, so I wanted to give it a try. Writing structured poetry to a form is kind of like a puzzle, trying to make the lines and the rhymes work out. The sonnet form has 14 lines with 10 syllables per line. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (each letter being a particular rhyme). Here’s what I came up with.

Earth Day Sonnet

You’re looking rather peaked, my dear Earth.
Has our party been getting out of hand?
Thanks for hosting our rave of endless mirth,
despite our dancing heating up your land.

We appreciate the resources you share.
You’re huge, you have so much to give!
Your fossil fuels, plants and animals, the air,
water, soil, and food we need to live.

Oh, your ice caps melt and weather’s getting crazy?
Oh darn, but don’t ask us to change our ways.
It’s fine right now, and the future’s just too hazy.
Surely there’s time to fix it all someday.

Hopefully we’ll soon get past our deep delusions,
to heal you, dear Earth, with creative solutions!


Photos  by Nikola Jovanovic and Melissa Askew of Unsplash.com. Art by me.

This iLand Is Your Land, This iLand Is My Land

Recently a poem that my son Leo wrote 10 years ago resurfaced in my Facebook Memories. He was a senior in high school and students were asked to write poetry about the islands of trash accumulating in the Pacific Ocean. I was blown away by his poem when he first showed it to us, and still impressed to reread it 10 years later. He uses potent language and imagery to call attention to this important and often-ignored issue.  And I love the term “iLand,” as if Apple has taken over the world. Continue reading

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