Amanda Gorman: Earthrise

[Tommymac]

"Where despite disparities
We all care to protect this world,
This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel
To muster the verve and the nerve
To see how we can serve
Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician
To make it your mission to conserve, to protect,
To preserve that one and only home
That is ours,
To use your unique power
To give next generations the planet they deserve.

We are demonstrating, creating, advocating
We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient
With the future of our youth.

And while this is a training,
in sustaining the future of our planet,
There is no rehearsal. The time is
Now
Now
Now,
Because the reversal of harm,
And protection of a future so universal
Should be anything but controversial.

So, earth, pale blue dot
We will fail you not."

[abqtommy]

1. That's beautiful. The words and the photo, both.

[Tommymac]

2. I'm in my 60's and I find it so inspiring.

This new generation of youth is special. They give me Hope.

Not taking anything away from other generations when I say that.

[ChrisF1961]

3. Beautiful

Thanks for sharing!

BTW This is my very first DU post!!!

[Tommymac]

4. Welcome to DU!

May you have a shining experience here!

[ChrisF1961]

8. Thanks!!!

[gopiscrap]

9. welcome to DU

[ChrisF1961]

11. Thank you!!!

[lark]

5. Beautiful - I used this as my FB post for Earth Day.

Such a great poet and I pray she is right.

[Tommymac]

6. Thanks. It is inspiring and we need all the hope we can generate.

[Wounded Bear]

7. K&R...nt

[Brother Buzz]

10. Here's Earthrise in it's entirety (2018)

Our Purpose in Poetry:
Or, Earthrise
by Amanda Gorman


On Christmas Eve, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders
Snapped a photo of the earth
As Apollo 8 orbited the moon.

Those three guys
Were surprised
To see from their eyes
Our planet looked like an earthrise
A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon,
with deep oceans and silver skies.

It was our world’s first glance at itself
Our first chance to see a shared reality,
A declared stance and a commonality;

A glimpse into our planet’s mirror,
And as threats drew nearer,
Our own urgency became clearer,
As we realize that we hold nothing dearer
than this floating body we all call home.

We’ve known
That we’re caught in the throes
Of climactic changes some say
Will just go away,
While some simply pray
To survive another day;
For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor,
Who when the disaster
Is declared done,
Still suffer more than anyone.

Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time,

Of this, you’re certainly aware.
It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you
From knowing an inconvenient fact, because
It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait.

So I tell you this not to scare you,
But to prepare you, to dare you
To dream a different reality,

Where despite disparities
We all care to protect this world,
This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel
To muster the verve and the nerve
To see how we can serve
Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician
To make it your mission to conserve, to protect,
To preserve that one and only home
That is ours,
To use your unique power
To give next generations the planet they deserve.

We are demonstrating, creating, advocating

We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient
With the future of our youth.

And while this is a training,
in sustaining the future of our planet,
There is no rehearsal. The time is
Now
Now
Now,
Because the reversal of harm,
And protection of a future so universal
Should be anything but controversial.

So, earth, pale blue dot
We will fail you not.

Just as we chose to go to the moon
We know it’s never too soon
To choose hope.
We choose to do more than cope
With climate change
We choose to end it—
We refuse to lose.
Together we do this and more
Not because it’s very easy or nice
But because it is necessary,
Because with every dawn we carry
the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star.
And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down,
But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready,
Because an environmental movement of this size
Is simply another form of an earthrise.

To see it, close your eyes.
Visualize that all of us leaders in this room
and outside of these walls or in the halls, all
of us changemakers are in a spacecraft,
Floating like a silver raft
in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.
We relish the view;
We witness its round green and brilliant blue,
Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:
What can we do?
Open your eyes.
Know that the future of
this wise planet
Lies right in sight:
Right in all of us. Trust
this earth uprising.
All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before
For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core,
To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.

......................................

How Poetry Comes to Me
by Gary Snyder

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light

[crickets]

12. Thank you for this - Amanda Gorman is wonderful. K&R

[Sympthsical]

13. I don't like the whole music video thing

Before anyone gets on me. Amanda Gorman is an amazingly talented poet with a rhythm, feeling, empathy, and perception that is required of great poets.

She is a great poet.

But this marketing package. Eh.

I'm a writer (unprofessionally), and I always love that the words on the page speak for themselves. The words themselves, their choice and usage, are purposeful and put on the page to evoke not just a feeling, but a thought.

Gorman is already a great poet. This young woman's career is one I'm invested in. How she fits ideas into words. So good.

I just hate this package. Her words are powerful. We don't need all this. I know how our society is. We're in the TikTok age. (I'm watching a nephew on crutches because his TikTok "fame" went kind of wrong - in my house, and I have eyebrows about this.)

Maybe just me. Her words and how she pieces ideas and language together are so great, this feels weirdly cheapened.

And I think, within this post, I, as an older Millennial, may have just become an old man yelling at clouds.

[Tommymac]

14. Poetry is meant to be read aloud. nt

[Sympthsical]

15. It is

I’m th kind of liberal that goes to open poetry reading at a coffee shop. My ex actually organizes them.

I think my complaint, if it is one, is I don’t want to see this brilliant poet commercialized. Because then she has obligation. Then, she has to write a poem about wheatever. It won’t be try. But drink Pepsi!

I don’t want that for her.

[Tommymac]

16. In person she speaks to a few. Online, millions.

I'll take her on social media any day. She is smart enough to do what she thinks best.

I am not a purist - popularity has it's ups and downs. TV and Social media can make and break ideas. Whatever gets the ideas and memes out to the most peeps is ok with me.