TO THOSE WHO POISON THE WATER - John Shane
CLICK BELOW to hear John Shane reads his poem, SCROLL DOWN to read the poem and also to see newspaper articles about the pollution of the waterways of the UK and water shortages around the world.
John Shane reads his poem “To Those Who Poison The Water
To Those Who Poison The Water
John Shane
Since you have not listened
to reason, and you do not hear
the voice of the people
clearly raised against
the folly of your action,
what hope is there
that you will hear
the cry of the Earth?
The tongueless song of water
echoes in your veins,
your flesh, your bones,
the rain speaks to you,
and streams and rivers sing
When the mind is still,
one may hear these things:
the voices of the thousand
life forms of the earth, the sky,
those that live above the surface
of the water and those
that live below
And when the mind is still,
one may know how all live
in subtle balance
in the flow
A mind that spins cannot
know the unity of all things,
and when such minds wield power
they do more damage
by the hour
Tampering with things
half understood
they bring evil where
they claim to do good
In my dark dream
I hear the creature terror
of all that will suffer
from these man-made errors:
fish and snake,
bullfrog and dragonfly,
bee and bird, beetle and toad,
I hear them all, I give them voice,
that you may hear their wordless cry
Wrigglers and scamperers,
crawlers and creepers,
the winged and the whiskered,
the feathered and the finned,
I hear them crying in this bitter wind,
calling to you to stop this madness,
now, before it’s too late:
what you are doing to the natural world
will kill, and maim, and mutilate
Let your mind be silent,
even for a moment,
and you will know
that no thing is separate
from another
What kind of creature
has the right
to put poison
in the bloodstream
of all others?
JS
(click on any of the links below to go to the relevant newspaper article)
Water Firms in England ‘Passed’ Pollution Tests That Were Never Carried Out
Global Water Crisis Leaves Half Of World Food Production At Risk In Next 25 Years
Only One-Third Of Europe’s Surface Water Qualifies As Good Or Better, Study Finds
Top-rated UK Water Firms ‘Dumped 1,374 Illegal Spills Into Rivers’
How The Overseas Owners Of England’s Water Companies Clean Up By Polluting Our Rivers
