A Lament of Water

A few years ago at St Leonard's church Assisi, I met an international water consultant. we had a fascinating conversation about the sheer waste of water in supply systems across the world - a situation that the Italian-based engineer advises on with a view to finding remedies. The volume of wasted water he described points to unbelievable levels of negligence, which I have tried to reflect in the following poem, which my engineer friend has checked for accuracy - and for that, I am most grateful. There are also major international questions as to who ‘owns’ water - but that’s another major topic for another time!

A Lament of Water
You seek me on far distant planets,
knowing I signal life.
Yet you who need me abuse me,
In hideous measure
Through ill-tended pipes.

At least one third of me, treated,
ensuring I'm drinkably pure,
is lost as I pass, through the mains, to a tap;
‘tis profligate! That's to be sure.

So whilst others struggle collecting
me, trekking to worrying source,
you have no concern for what you can't see,
that from stricken  pipeworks
I constantly burst.

Paradise Island Dreams

‘Moonglow’ CGI by the author

Darkness stretches to the horizon,

speckled grey reflects a struggling moon;

close to my invisible feet

a gravelly surge tells me soon

the waves will undermine

the tiny promontory where I stand;

steady for now but in only minutes

my dreamer’s knoll will be engulfed 

in the unpredictably shifting sand.

I will stay, I will stay for a while

transfixed by the infinite

rhythm of the waves.

Tonight the ocean’s gentle swell

masks the latent violence

that makes it the realm of innumerable graves.

Transient glints from the downcast sky

cause me to reflect;

there, beyond my constrained eye

and my pedestrian imagining

are deep trenches, 

mighty sub-surface mountains,

scintillating reefs;

mortuaries - millions of shells, no longer in use:

slithering predators, giving no relief 

to myriads of fish of dizzily entrancing hues.

And in the deeper, deeper waters

sinister gyres

where we, ultimate predators,

ultimate polluters 

cast plastic, glass and toxic refuse

unthinkingly

from boats, shorelines, rivers and streams

adding to the natural death toll:

so rapidly, all too rapidly

we poison everyone’s
paradise island dreams.

Extending the Life of the Planet: Yes We Can!

Helped by science, we’ve reduced the dangerous ozone hole;
Countries are, with foresight, turning down their coal;

there are otters, fish and wildfowl in rivers once deemed dead;

we’re more concerned when species’ lives hang dangling on a thread.

So with some careful measures and a will to rearrange,

we can stop the planet heading for a dangerous climate change;

and each of us can contribute by thinking day-by-day

of switching off, recycling waste and throwing less away.

Below, rainbow cards of this poem  to print out for circulation at appropriate events. May I encourage you to distribute them as widely as you can. They focus on achievement andthe positive and may, therefore, have an impact that will be greater than some more forceful messages!