Thursday 25 November 2021

What We Need Is A Reverence For Life


 "What we needed at the Cop26 climate conference was a decision to burn no more fossil fuels after 2030. Instead, powerful governments sought a compromise between our prospects of survival and the interests of the fossil fuel industry. But there was no room for compromise. Without massive and immediate change, we face the possibility of cascading environmental collapse, as Earth systems pass critical thresholds and flip into new and hostile states." George Monbiot, Domino Theory

It's as though we learned that creating something new, solving a problem,  is so hard and takes so long, we gave up and instead focused on destroying everything we can. Like those video games where the player moves the track point to the moving images of whatever is in its path which blow up into cloud dust until you exit the game.

When all things on this planet have been blown up, when we are gone how will we know who won?

But this is not who we are. This is not us. This is a different kind of game organized by those who hate, who are so broken they conspire to get us all to believe we are mindless ping pong balls spending our waking hours trying to win ... anything and everything.

This view makes the world a shallow violent place as though we were all created in a petri dish, five minutes ago.

We began our personal lives in a uterus and stayed there for about nine months until  forced out into the cold air, crying, outraged, until a nipple was found, and by some magic we knew we had to suck it to survive.

Capitalism has revolved around the creation of "things" to play while it destroys the earth we depend on to breathe, eat and live.

Minds are battered by trivial inventions to create need. Education teaches us to measure the trivial so we can survive by playing the game of "winning". The problem is that nature offers so much beauty and mystery we can be absorbed in life and neglect the games that drive the economy where only one side wins and everything else loses.

Tuesday 23 November 2021

the listening Leah Hokanson


the listening 

     penetrates perception


the listening

     softens edges


the listening

     dissolves other


the listening

     of flow

     movement

     turning

          and returning


the listening

     beyond language 

     beyond history

     beyond I 


the listening 

     of intention

     attention

     invocation


the listening

     of innocence 

     of presence



     of silence





 

Monday 22 November 2021

Evening Song Vi Hughes

 



At end of day when streets are still,

And houses shutter from the fear,

A single note comes rising up,

Soon followed by another.


Shutters open, people rush 

To fill the streets with song.


Banging, 

Clanging, 

Cheering, 

Clapping.


They sing a song of thanks.

Thanks to all the health care workers, 


No end of day for them. 


Sunday 21 November 2021

Teleology Janet Vickers


It takes four to ten years 

to study medicine and the learning 

never ends—specialists research until

they die—spend hours on committees

listen to those who survived

and family of those who didnt

—life is about 

pain, sorrow and struggle

as you try to learn their needs—no winning 

or losing in the thick of it 

all you want is to make them better

the prize—an empty bed

of someone who went home

grateful for the times

you hid your fatigue.

 

Saturday 20 November 2021

Who do you go to ? Dave Neads

 



When you want to increase your portfolio

Make a few hundred thou on the side

Who do you go to? 

Those who have tips, insider info


When you want to get the best return 

on your money, pick up a few points

Who do you go to? 

Those who give advice, know the market  


When you want to buy that big home

Triple your investment over the next year

Who do you go to?

Realtors, who know property values 


When you want to look younger

Shave a few wrinkles, enhance your sweater

Who do you go to?

Plastic surgeons, people who know profiles.


When you seek relief from the burdensome

Traces of a functioning society 

Who do you go to?

Politicians who know the value of money.


Who do you go to when you are sick?

When you need medical attention?

Who do you go to?

Dedicated Doctors and Nurses  


Yet you advocate squeezing scant budgets

Stopping creeping socialism 

Where do you go

When it is your life on  the line?


To your stock broker? 

Your Banker?

Your Real Estate broker?

Your Investment analysts?


Like they give  a hoot about you

You need those who care,

Who devote their lives to healing  

Others.


For no profit, no investment gain

These are the ones who care about others.

Something foreign 

To your consciousness.


So let us celebrate those among us who

Dedicate their time, energy

And yes, even their lives 

To help others. 


Without them we would 

simply be another howling 

mob of dog eat dog 

in the wilderness. 


And who loses in such a scenario?

I bet you can guess.  ( Or maybe not)  

Because privilege comes with blinkers

Until the reins are seized.



Who will you go to then ? 


 



Friday 19 November 2021

The Compassionate Weary Jennie Jones

 

Thank you to the 

Compassionate weary,

for acknowledging the sick,

for acknowledging the weak,

for acknowledging the elderly,

We are in this together.

There is no "less than"

There is no "more than".

There is just us.

Some say they are strong, 

But act weak.

Some are weak but have to be strong.

Are we in this together?

I say, "Thank goodness”

That the compassionare weary are still here. 

We see you

We care.          

Thursday 18 November 2021

The Care Workers Lament Peter Turner

  

  



Will the winds thrash the leaves 

And the waves churn the sands

When we go 

Will you feel us leave

And when we've gone

Have empty hands.


Wednesday 17 November 2021

my heart attack #3 Robert Martens



and in this week of heart

madness, i watched the walls

bulge and the ceilings groan

and nurses running to plug

the holes and doctors propping up

the awkward weight of the


system – and in our great, our

great fatigue, the system is

playing us they cried, and

did not weep, and their

rage rolled like smoke over

heads weary with trying

 

Tuesday 16 November 2021

Frontline Pat Bullock



I couldn't do what you do

I don't even want to do what you do

I don't understand why you want to do what you do


I think it is love

Love that you have deep inside your very soul


Love for the sick and crying child

Love for the pain-racked teenager

Love for the elder who can't find a voice 

to tell you where it hurts


Love and compassion

Compassion that shows in your gentle touch, 

your concerned eyes


Compassion for the child who thought 

riding a bike was easy

Compassion for the teenager who thought 

their decision was the right one                               

Compassion for the elder who hasn't any family 

to stand beside them 

and for them

 

Love and compassion and caring

Caring that shows in being there, in the moment, 

with time to help


Caring that shows in your voice

Caring that shows in your tender 

yet efficient touch

Caring that shows in how you speak 

to the patient and their family 


But most of all

I think it is love

Pure love and only love


Love for your patient

Love for your patient's family

Love that promises to do the very best you can, 

to the best of your ability


And that is why you have our love and our respect

Because you have all that love in you to help and care 

that we only wish we had


And for that, for that love and compassion and caring, 

we love you and we thank you.







Monday 15 November 2021

To vax Not to vax Naomi Beth Wakan


 

To abort

Not to abort

The right is right

And so is the left

War is wrong

War is inevitable

Each  morning I read:

The CBC news

The National Post

The Globe and Mail

The Times Colonist

Huff Post

Al Jazeera

swaying from 

opinion to opinion.

In confusion

I take down

my favourite book

telling me that

we all were once

innocent


Sunday 14 November 2021

Ode to Nurses and Health Care Workers Frances Deverell

 



Can we ever thank them enough?

The nurses working double 12-hour shifts

to care for us,

the sick overwhelming the hospital corridors;

health care workers, risking their lives 

with inadequate PPE.


With low pay.


They worked from their hearts,

through all that terror,

giving everything, they had . . . 

and more


to care for us.


They cared for their patients

and grieved when they died.


So how do we respond?

we allow them to be threatened, 

and insulted,

and diminished

with unbridled vitriol.


And we fail to protect them.


Or we protect them.


What do you choose?








Saturday 13 November 2021

Finding Calm Sally Quon

 


Hours in the ER,

too bright lights, 

sound of suffering all around,


alone, and scared.


Moved to a ward,

walls, cool and green,

low lights to ease my burning eyes – 

the only sound a murmur and a hum.


Until a voice,

calm and soothing,

“I’m here for you.  What do you want to know?”


Funny that now, years later,

when panic strikes,

I go back,  

remember the voice in the dark.

Relive the moment

calm settled in,

and I am comforted.


You are there for me, still

a ghost from the past,

lending me strength,



pushing me on.

You have no way to know

how you changed me,


how grateful I am.


Pale,

against the bright light of your tender care,

my meagre words

not nearly enough.



Friday 12 November 2021

Conspiracy to care: poems


🌳 Conspiracy

a poem to smooth you into

sympathy with another being

a way to identify with your tribe

with affection more than DNA


you have been great for

3 hundred thousand years

carrying that big brain

wherever you went

but tools, language, storytelling

appeared later


invention of types, races, genders

brave new worlds of organized

relationships and religions

revolutions of industry

knowledge, schools, churches


—so this booklet is a conspiracy

of support for those who care

for our health—a common objective

the greater good

to belong to the universe

and all its stars forever.



(For the next two weeks these posts will show poems from the booklet "Conspiracy to Care" to thank our health care workers for their dedication to healing)









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