The Power of the Youth
Flower Mound, TX
2020, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Majestic, powerful, endlessly beautiful
this is the language of the ocean.
But rising climate change is destroying her capacities
a sharp spear made of humankind’s carelessness and greed
slicing through our planet’s most powerful and majestic giver-of-life.
Through our rejection of this defeat,
I want to live in a world where corporate factory greed comes to the collective conclusion
that their precious annual revenue is less important than the only planet humankind has
ever known.
I don’t want to be part of a world where climate change is a “debate” that “slows progress,”
but I do want to see people everywhere accepting that this is an issue. I want to be a part of
a world in which we all strive
strive to live in a world where
bleaching coral reefs and rising temperatures are an enemy
we’ve almost defeated.
A world where our generation has yanked out that spear with such
force, and drive, and passion,
that everyone has finally heard what we have to say.
With our generation’s privilege and rebelliousness
comes our power to influence the world
and create something beautiful.
One day, you will hear
that the passionate members of the current youth everywhere
have united and decided that, piece by piece, no matter what,
we are going to use our arts and our passions
to share the devastation of climate change,
to proclaim the necessity of societal evolution,
and to make our dreams for this planet come true
through collaboration and innovation.
This is our power to slow climate change
and raise ocean awareness,
and this is the power of the youth.
Works Cited
https://www.forbes.com/sites/uhenergy/2018/09/07/exactly-how-much-has-the-earth-warmed-and-does-it-matter/#42f92d435c22
https://www.unicef.org/environment-and-climate-change/youth-action
Reflection
Reflection
Climate change has been an important topic of conversation for people in my grade, and adults actually ended up being our obstacles in working towards some greater change. I wrote this poem to show others that being “just a kid” does not reduce your capacity to do amazing things for our world or raise awareness of the devastation of rising climate change. I want to be part of a world where our planet’s temperature does not rise every 50 years, and I believe that this change starts with the young people of our world. Doing this project made me realize how broken our world’s values are and how much pain our oceans face, but it also reminded me to have hope, for when our generation speaks up, we will make sure our voices are heard everywhere. Performing the video as spoken word poetry also had a heavy emotional impact on me and my perspective on this topic. To anyone reading this poem, I urge you to take action using your own capacities, whether it be raising awareness or starting a powerful moral revolution. Although this is not a “scientific solution” for climate change, I believe that this is the first step to reaching a viable solution, and this piece of hope is what inspired me to write this poem. I know that I will forever continue to raise awareness of this issue and attempt to inspire others into doing the same.