I’ve not been on the front lines of Extinction Rebellion this week. I’ve been running errands, doing press interviews, delivering food. I held banners, went shopping for camping equipment. I gathered material for a new book, which I’ll tell you about sometime soon. And I performed some poetry that I’d written for the occasion. Not something I do very often, but it went down well and a couple of people asked for copies afterwards.
Here’s one of the three I read, and the others are on the Christian Climate Action website among the resources.
Footprints
We were foragers once,
then gardeners, then citizens.
We have been consumers.
What will our children be?
Iron followed bronze, followed stone
the age of kings, empires, industry.
What follows the age of the consumer?
One defined by its devouring?
Our ancestors walked as humans.
We have walked like giants.
Must our children walk like ghosts on the earth,
and leave no footprints?
Very powerful poem. It makes a lot of sense to me that you would write beautiful impactful poems..