SOL 15/31 & Poetry Friday: A Call to Action

 

  

Head over to Heidi Mordhorst's blog, my juicy little universe,  

to read her call to action and learn more about #youthclimatestrike. 

I must admit that when I read somewhere that our posts for this week's Poetry Friday post were supposed to be about climate change that I was a bit disappointed. I have a poem I've been wanting to share, but that will have to wait for next week. Midway through the week, I pulled a favorite anthology off my shelf.

 And I chose a poem by Alice Schertle.

Secretary Bird

Take a letter:

Say that

the ancient trees are falling.

Say that

the whale's song grows faint.

Say the passenger pigeon is gone.

The great auk is gone.

The rhino, the mountain gorilla,

almost gone...

Dip your quill 

in the sludge 

along the river,

in the soot 

from the smokestack,

in the poisoned lake,

in the burning rain.

Dip it in the blood of the great blue whale.

Take a letter, bird:

to whom it may

concern

-Alice Schertle

(Did you know that Alice Schertle is the author of The Little Blue Truck books? I've read them more than a few times with my grandsons. And one of my favorite books by Alice Schertle is Button Up!:Wrinkled Rhymes. But I digress.)

When I clicked on Heidi's post to link up, I saw that she also shared this poem. And she shares many ways for us to take action and provides links to make it easier to do so. 

Just a quick personal connection - I heard Heidi speak at NCTE18 in the Poetry in the Wild session and it was a treat. She's a passionate educator. I appreciate her call to action with so many ways that we can "dip our quill" to become messengers of action.