Earth Rise
Naperville, IL
2020, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Gripped in space,
earth lies in the wake of darkness,
under all its dense and churning clouds
and hidden in an ocean blue.
through the tint of atmospheric whites,
the cold night glares at our leaders, who look away from
the lines of factory smoke that curl into the sky and down
onto the bears and bulls of stock exchange lines.
still, all the numbers
and city lights flash into space,
swallowed by the crying winds of Jupiter
and captured in the infinite rings of Saturn.
so, the night sky tells the species of earth,
from the polar bears with fur white like arctic caves
to grand sea turtles swimming under Pacific blues,
that after millennia pass,
plastic in the oceans, fallen trees, melting ice
will be left to die with time,
as will humans.
as the sky looks at us with its cruel eyes,
at all our intelligence and pride,
it sees that we have yet to realize
we are but guests of this paradise.
Inspiration for the poem:
Picture of Earth Rise (NASA) on December 24, 1968, https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html
Citations for pictures used in the spoken-word video:
“File: The Earth Seen from Apollo 17.Jpg.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth#/media/File:The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpg.
West, Michael. “AstroAlert: NASA Remasters the ‘Pale Blue Dot’ Photo of Earth.” Lowell Observatory, 27 Feb. 2020, lowell.edu/astroalert-nasa-remasters-the-pale-blue-dot-photo-of-earth/.
Seng, Kim. “Plums of Smoke from Factory.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 18 Jan. 2014, www.flickr.com/photos/captainkimo/12004131706.
CBS17.com. “Dow Hits Another Record as Stock Market Rally Extends into 5th Week.” CBS17.Com, CBS17.Com, 5 Nov. 2019, www.cbs17.com/news/national-news/dow-hits-another-record-as-stock-market-rally-extends-into-5th-week/.
Garner, Rob. “Hubble’s New Portrait of Jupiter.” NASA, NASA, 7 Aug. 2019, www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/hubble-new-portrait-of-jupiter.
“Saturn Facts – Interesting Facts about Planet Saturn.” Space Facts, 24 Apr. 2020, space-facts.com/saturn/.
“Earth BioGenome Project Aims to Sequence DNA From All Complex Life.” UC Davis, 2 May 2019, www.ucdavis.edu/news/earth-biogenome-project-aims-sequence-dna-all-complex-life/.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Polar Bear.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 8 Apr. 2020, www.britannica.com/animal/polar-bear.
“Green Sea Turtle.” Burke Museum, www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/biology/herpetology/amphibians-reptiles-washington/green-sea-turtle.
Engler, Sarah. “10 Ways to Reduce Plastic Pollution.” NRDC, 4 June 2020, www.nrdc.org/stories/10-ways-reduce-plastic-pollution.
Risso, Sébastien. “Will Europe Lead the Way towards ‘Zero Deforestation’?” Greenpeace International, 4 June 2020, www.greenpeace.org/international/story/6803/will-europe-lead-the-way-towards-zero-deforestation/.
Woodward, Aylin. “Melting Ice Is Slowing down the Atlantic Ocean’s Circulation System. Yes, That’s Similar to What Happens in ‘The Day After Tomorrow.’.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 26 Sept. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/melting-ice-weakens-atlantic-ocean-currents-climate-change-2019-9.
“Scary Sky by Mike Stobbs.” PBase, www.pbase.com/impalass/image/106431654.
Administrator, NASA Content. “Earthrise.” NASA, NASA, 23 Feb. 2015, www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html. www.newsweek.com/deep-space-exploration-genetically-modified-humans-astronomer-1478986.

Reflection
Reflection
My main inspiration for this poem is a picture of the Earth called Earth Rise, taken from the moon by NASA astronaut William Anders from the moon’s orbit in 1968. It was published in an issue of Time Magazine. The photo Earth Rise shows Earth in all its beauty, alone in the cold darkness of space. It reminds us that Earth is our one and only home and how important it is for us to protect it. I wrote this poem to describe how foolish we, especially many of our leaders, have been when it comes to dealing with climate change. It is a wake-up call to them that it is not our decision to decide which species will perish and how damaged the Earth will become in the name of human benefits, such the economy. I say this because in the end, if we destroy Earth, it will be the end of us as well. This poem is a call to action for our leaders and everyday people that something must be done about climate change before it is too late. I think that many powerful voices, especially youth ones, will change the actions of our nations dealing with climate change. I also discovered I could use my voice, too. I want this poem to be one of the many voices that calls out to every human to do something about the damage we are all causing upon Earth, our home.