Waters Deep and Gray
Santa Clara, CA
2018, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Introduction —-
Valuing luxury over life
Polluting waters that were once blue
Thousands upon thousands of habitats lost
Thousands without a clue
They give us false promises
Preach but do not change
Gallons upon gallons they dump
The waters deep and gray
Blinded —-
Oil as black as midnight spills
Fleeting glimpses of rainbows dance across water
Would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so deadly
Just as the birds are now blinded to the world they live in
People are blinded to all of the creatures whose lives were lost
The Ocean —-
Flashes of color, so bright and lively
The ocean itself ever-changing, beautiful in its states
Its vengeful roar with crashing waves, beautiful in its anger
Its playful moods, bouncing waves, inviting someone to play
Its calming lull, soft enough to rock a newborn to sleep
Hidden beneath the surface, an underwater paradise, a safe haven
What they should have been —-
The air should have been the comfortable warmth of the approaching summer
A mixture of fresh watermelon, bright laughter, and fun games
Instead came the sweltering heat, from which no one could escape
The meadow should have been covered in a vivid green
Small scurrying animals roam the grass while the gentle giants look from above
Instead were the clumps of grass rolling around, devoid of all previous life
The ice should have been a home for all kinds of creatures
Polar bears, arctic foxes, caribou, and more thrive in this ecosystem
Instead came the rising sea, the absence of ice, and the loss of the life they had known
The ocean should have been the crashing waves and the swirling storms
Iridescent shimmers flash across scales of fish, bold colors glow from the abundance of coral
Instead were the washed-out reefs, a broken piece of a promise
Bibliography
Lyon, Susan, and Daniel J. Weiss. “Oil Spills by the Numbers.” Center for American Progress,
Center for American Progress, 7 July 2010, www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2010/04/30/7620/oil-spills-by-the-numbers.
Bardoff, Jenna. “The Scary Facts About Oil Spills, Animals and Our Food Chain.” One Green Planet, One Green Planet, 14 Aug. 2014, www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/oil-spills-animals-and-our-food-chain.
Reflection
Reflection
I immediately wanted to do a four-part poem when I saw that poetry was an option to spread awareness. I wanted to start off with something that flows well and could introduce the topic I wanted to write about. This is why I chose a simple poem to start off with that showed the vast amounts of pollution being dumped into the water. In the second part, I wanted to tie together the fact that birds and animals are blinded by oil in a way that could be related to people being blinded to the issue of oil dumping and pollution. This is also why I chose to include that, although the shimmer of oil looks beautiful across the water, it is also deadly to the animals that depend on the ocean ecosystem. In the third part, after leaving off on such a note, I wanted to bring to light the beauty of the ocean and how many living creatures depend on it. Lastly, in order to sum up the entire poem, I wrote something that showed how different some ecosystems would be with earlier action. It leaves on a note that is a call to action to prevent any further damage. While somewhat acknowledging that the world can never be the same, the use of repetition emphasizes that although something like this has happened, there is still some hope for change. In order to achieve this change, every person has to do their part in preserving the environment.