My Poem ‘Earth Day’

The weather is so beautiful;
the hours of the day feel like they are racing away at a marathon pace;
there is a silence, and a stillness in the summer air,
save for the sweet dusk chorus of birds tweeting and chirping all-around.
Even though I feel tired in body, I feel alive in mind,
I feel good in spirit, I feel wondrous, I feel jovial, I feel hopeful.
For the first time in a long time, I feel the wall of uncertainty
crumble and fall to rubble and dust;
for the first time in my life, I feel like I can lower my guard,
take a chance, open up, put all my faith in trust.

We take people for granted,
we take our families for granted,
we take our planet for granted;
we forget, sometimes, that no one is perfect-
we wish people were, we wish our fantasies were our reality,
but that is human nature:
we look at the paradise planet that we are blessed to live on,
that has its own heart, engine, mind, speed, and momentum-
the manifestation of a miracle, in perfect balance with itself-
and we wish that we could all be so easily accepting of differences
and change, and we wish that we could create something
that might stand the test of time, as Earth has-
something built to endure.

To me, every day is Earth Day.
Everyday I feel lucky to be alive, in good health,
and able to express myself in any way that I wish-
especially when I think of what it is like
for some people on planet Earth
who are not as lucky as I am, who are not as fortunate,
who never had the start, the upbringing, the foundation,
and the family that I have;
to someone who lives in a war-zone,
or in a totalitarian society, looking from the outside in at my life,
they would think that I were someone who lived
without a worry in the world,
someone who lives in a constant state of bliss-
with all the fruits and gifts of modern-life in the world
at his finger tips.
I wish it were so.
I may be spoilt in one sense of the word,
but I genuinely feel wanting in another:
I am like a hard-back book that remains closed most of the time,
and the only part of me that people see is the dust-cover.

We build. We tear down.
We bring together. We destroy.
In my opinion, we need to step back
and live along-side our planetary parent,
leave and savour what is meant to be there
and what was there long before our species
could even walk on two feet,
let alone think about the well-being of others,
communicate and talk.
We need to realise that coexistence
is the most important prerequisite for peace and sustainability;
if we were to do so, then we would rise above our problems
and our differences, grow wings,
and feel as free and unhindered as a hawk.

Our life, all of our lives,
would be so much simpler if we could just allow ourselves
to go where the signs of life tell us to go,
to see a direction to proceed and go with all our heart that way.
Earth, our home, is a testament to order, chaos,
experimentation, what you can achieve if you are willing
to put the time and the effort into something,
no matter the sacrifices that you sometimes have to make.
I just wanted to take the time to thank the planet of our birth
for all that she has blessed us with;
and to everyone, I just want to say a Happy Earth Day!

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