CLIMERICKS: AN INVITATION

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If you should happen to be in the Cambridge (UK) area between Monday 2nd September and Friday 13th you are invited to visit MICHAELHOUSE CAFE where there will be a display of CLIMERICKS, all drawn from this blog site. Michaelhouse is in Trinity Street, just a few doors down from The University Bookshop.

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

NEW CLIMERICKS WILL APPEAR ON THIS SITE TWICE WEEKLY - SO KEEP LOOKING TO STAY UP TO DATE.

CLIMERICK: On many Pacific Isles by Susan Sanderson

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On many Pacific Isles
Most homes are within three miles
Of the rising sea
People there could be
Victims of first-world lifestyles

 

Article in Guardian (28/8/24). Headline: Rising sea levels mean Pacific islands in 'grave danger', warns UN chief

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE   

CLIMERICK: You Tourists Who Visit the Lakes by Susan Sanderson

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This Climerick is aimed at those who are and will be visiting The Lake District, so is particularly germane just ahead of the UK Bank Holiday weekend. But will also be relevant to many Lakes elsewhere in the UK or other countries that attract high volumes of tourist traffic

 

You tourists who visit the Lakes,
please avoid making mistakes.
Don’t drive; Park and Ride!
in nature take pride;
don’t litter or pollute the lakes!

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

CLIMERICK: Doctors Jailed for Climate Change Protest

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Doctors jailed for climate change protest

had their licence reviewed by weird process,

then absurdly, withdrawn

through wild claptrap that’s spawned 

in the GMC – they’re the real ogres.

 

Two doctors who have taken part in peaceful climate change protests have been jailed and to add insult to injury, the GMC have disgracefully withdrawn their licences to practice. (Observer report 18.08.2024)

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

With My Back to the Chapel Wall

 

With my back to the chapel wall

I know, from Cedd’s faithful orientation

I am facing East.

And in a bracing onshore wind, 

I look out to sea.

Within moments I am assailed 

by a breath-sapping gust

and simultaneously seized by the vista.

A makeover after millennia

of changelessness.

Tall white tapering candles of steel

surmounted by swirling blades

eagerly drawing energy 

from the same - but amplified wind.

These are our hope.

But grief stricken, I see

that even now

they are threatened by

the menacing blackness

of earlier constructed rigs.

In the foreground,

grasses sway and dragonflies dart,

while they still can.

CLIMERICK at St Peters on The Wall, Bradwell-on Sea-Essex

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Chapel of St Peter-ad-Murum close to

The Othona Community

I’m on an astronomy retreat this week with The *Othona Community in Bradwell on Sea, Essex. Rhythms of the community are dictated by brief morning and evening reflections in the close-by 7^th century chapel built by St Cedd and swimming! That is because the only a proportion of the guests are here for the Astronomy; for a greater proportion, this is a family holiday with a guest star, Ivy who at 18 months has, I think, managed to charm everyone.

 

Every activity here is shared in some way by the guests and I was invited first to take an evening reflection, yesterday to say grace at lunchtime, and today I have been on lunch-time washing up duty, which is no small task with 90 guests. Thankfully the community has invested in modern cleaning equipment which is powered by off-grid electricity: an impressive feature which makes hosting such a large holiday-time population, practicable.

This, being my first summer week attendance here, I was a bit taken aback to be asked to lead grace on Tuesday lunchtime. I decided to follow a conventional meal-time Grace with a Climerick specially composed for the event!

 

My friends as we eat and drink well,

Please give thought to whom you might tell

That Othona’s off-grid,

In a small, vital bid,

To help head off Climate change hell.

I think you could regard this as a quasi-grace and is another use

for the ubiquitous Climerick. It is also a challenge for those who

feel comfortable composing short verse to introduce Climate 

change thinking wherever possible

 

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

*Find out more about the off-grid Othona Community at Bradwell on Sea, Essex, HERE

CLIMERICK: What a gift? It Would Make Many Glad by Trevor Thorn

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St Cuthbert’s Island, off Lindisfarne, Northumbria.

An islet under threat from rising sea levels. The islet

has been adopted by Eco-Verses as

a symbol of the global risk to low-lying places.

 

What a gift? It would make many glad,

if new buildings had to be clad 

with solar to heat

their air-con’s - so beat

the need for grid power: that’s not bad!

Idea From New Scientist – Readers’ Letters 27/7/24. Heat could, of course be directly used for much more than just aircons – but they are such hungry beasts!  

 

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

CLIMERICK: If You’re Part of the Great Band of Cleaners

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St Cuthbert’s Island, off Lindisfarne, Northumbria.

An islet under threat from rising sea levels. The islet

has been adopted by Eco-Verses as

a symbol of the global risk to low-lying places.

This couplet is part of a set which is addressed to all sorts of trades and professions, especially those which have large numbers - and might get overlooked by policy-makers. It reinforces the fact that Climate chaos affects EVERBODY.

If you’re part of the great band of cleaners 

who sometimes feel you are ‘not-seeners’,

this is time to break-out

and raise up a shout,

‘Clear the mess that’s been made by ‘No-Greeners’’.

 

How to do that’s not easy to know,

so, while you are out on the go,

place a climerick where

lots of people might stare

which says ‘Turn off the dirty fuel flow.’

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

CLIMERICK: Politicians Worldwide Must Have Seen

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St Cuthbert’s Island, off Lindisfarne, Northumbria.

An islet under threat from rising sea levels. The islet

has been adopted by Eco-Verses as

a symbol of the global risk to low-lying places.

 

 

Politicians worldwide must have seen,

that mass UK voters want green

policies soon,

for they’ve seen it’s high-noon

for Earth with a poor Eco-scene.

 

Graham Lawton writing in New Scientist 3^rd August 2024 (p24) refers to a poll taken by the climate think tank E3G which found that the Conservatives made no political gain from ‘ditching the green crap’ which they had thought would woo voters from their right flank. Another poll found that in the 251 constituencies the Conservatives lost, almost half of voters surveyed said the party

was wrong to backtrack on the environment. But even more importantly, a team from the University of Bonn have published results of a representative survey of 130,000 people across 125 countries which found that 89% of those surveyed want stronger political action on Climate change.

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE