Reflection

Reflection

My poem was prompted by all of the moorland wildfires that have occurred during the last 3 years near to where I live: looking into climate distortion has really opened my eyes to how society is coping with climate degradation. Locally, the moorland has dried out into a parched state, leaving it tinder-dry and vulnerable to moor fire, which occurred and spread quickly, scarring the land and taking many weeks to end. The fires killed many animals and birds and damaged and destroyed acres of vegetation, including peatland and heathers, further endangering future health. To me, the climate emergency needs more education for all and shared support around the world to limit our impact. At the start of my poem, I talk about a "sacred story." This means that our Earth is miraculous, and that we must do all we can to save it. The "story" idea has a beginning, middle, and end, but I think that it is ceaseless, ongoing, present, continuous. I talk about a "mettled disturbance" in my poem—I am punning on the word "metal" due to the growing global industry of extraction of metals and ores from the oceans, and I am also thinking about how courage is easily disturbed or distracted by such massive international mining forces. "Plastic water" is saying that the water is very changeable; it can expand and contract—especially if it is salt water—but also that it is a resource easily made available but easily thrown away. On the internet there are different pictures of the widespread damage that is happening to our oceans that we don’t always know about because it is out of sight to people living inland. I think that more warning needs to be given and more often. These issues need to be made more visible to everyone.