Reflection

Reflection

There’s a saying that goes that states that “You can’t understand until it happens to you.” I realize that this saying does not only apply to traumatic experiences, but it also the issue of climate change. Before I researched anything regarding climate change, I will admit- I was a bit oblivious about the issue. I heard many times that climate change negatively affects the Earth, animals, etc. However, I think the reason why I didn't pay much attention to those comments was because I didn’t think it affected … me. I didn’t know how the problem would tie its way back to me. As I was going to begin writing, I noticed I missed a key element of the theme, Climate Change Experience. Like I mentioned before, I didn’t have any experience of Climate Change. I knew of it, but that was it. I was oblivious. That is was inspired my poem. My experience of being oblivious and ignoring the problem. I wanted to show how humans are so oblivious to the problem and at the same time, give off the feeling of hypocrisy. I thought of a sunflower. I feel like the majority of humans like and enjoy the sights of sunflowers. Sunflowers symbolize positive vibes and cheerfulness. Then I thought- are sunflowers affected by climate change? I knew that greenhouse emissions caused the overall temperature of the Earth to be much warmer. However, the fact I didn't know was that sunflowers can’t grow in extreme temperatures. So I wrote a poem consisting of dialogue between a Human and a Sunflower. I started it off with the Human giving all these compliments to sunflowers and the human says that they would do nothing to harm the sunflower. I played with word choice and placement. Especially during the dialogue when the Human starts with “I will never do anything …”. I tried to mimic the shape of a heart beat line trying to show how the sunflower is dying. The Human doesn’t listen to the shouts from the Sunflower. Later, the Sunflower says that when the Human was giving all these compliments they were also hurting the flower with all things they’re doing that are increasing Climate Change. That’s where I wanted to show that hypocrisy feeling. The gaps between words are supposed to represent a heart thumping.