The Canvas of Environmental Consciousness
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
2023, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Climate Hero: Julie Heffernan
For quite some time, the canvas on the easel was painted azure,
The conception was minimal, yet so unequivocally pure.
Soon came a limited of components, of various colors and hues,
But the artists felt as if the elements and blues were overused.
And so, they grasped and budged the tip of the soaked brush,
A splash of fluid black spilled onto the blue did not seem to affect the visual much.
As the droplets of the shadowy shade moved along over the canvas,
Evident vibrant elements were coated in darkness.
A stroke of “smoke,” and a dash of “fish-hunter green,”
A hint of a “blue plastic bottle” and a swirl of “medical waste bag orange” in between.
One from the group of painters asked, “Are you certain it doesn’t look ugly?”
The rest didn’t lay an eye on the wound of the painting, said “It looks lovely.”
You artists must perceive that it was picturesque by itself,
It doesn’t require any more elements, nor the brushstrokes you compelled,
A question should be raised, now that the damage has been done,
“Can we restore the canvas, that the world had with, began?”
Yes, we can, we certainly can!
If all us artists work concurrently to paint the oceans cyan.
If we eliminate the multi-rooms full of discrete pigments from our mind,
Maybe the goalmouth won’t be left so far behind.
Let’s take a fresh new canvas,
And lay the signals that we desire, they voice for us.
If we lay the mural of the awareness for the eyes to meander,
To explore the aesthetics of nature, and the earth that we step-by-step slander.
There is only one chamber, that we must persist in,
The room from which the voyage of our resolutions begins.
Take the colors of the earth, and bandage the canvas to repaint our masterpiece,
Find hope in each stroke, recover harmony with each shade, and blend the simple colors to reinstate Nature’s peace.
Reflection
Reflection
During my research, I came across an artist known as Julie Heffernan, who inspired me to write the poem, describing her ambition and the urgency for us all to achieve it. I used both of my strong talents in visual art and poetry to write this, expressing the damage to the oceans through various shades and colours that an artist would use while painting. This poem is metaphorically describing the oil spills, plastic pollution, and the ignorance of people towards environmental damage, specifically climate change associated with the oceans, which is compared to destroying the simplicity of a canvas when you add too many elements. The message I want to convey through my poem is to work upon viewing how simplicity can be not only beautiful in various aspects but can have positive impacts. Through Heffernan’s work, we understand that our brain has multi-rooms which are of different colours; this metaphor means that our brain has different aspects. Taking an example, our compartmentalized brain allows us to express concern for the environment and simultaneously make unsustainable choices. For us to achieve the goal of sustainability, we should all eliminate those unsustainable choices.Heffernan’s vision is to find solutions on how we can remake our world, and if we began working collectively as earthlings, we can surely achieve it!