A Cry for Nature (Poem by Alan Ardy)

A Cry For Nature

They’re cutting more and more trees down, have you seen?
And replacing them with concrete that’s quite obscene

In the name of development and urban renewal. 
Destroying wildlife habitats isn’t just cruel

But also short-term thinking at its very worst
Because such gross devastation can’t be reversed.

But they don’t care about Nature, just the pursuit of wealth, 
Indifferent to the effect upon the nation’s health.

They say it’s for progress but they don’t see the dangers
Of our next generation growing up as strangers

To the undisturbed beauty of a forest glade
And the calm tranquility that Nature has made

Quite unaware that ecological destruction
Isn’t progress at all but spiritual corruption.

Do they seriously believe that more urban sprawl,
Industrial estates or another shopping mall

With architectural designs in dubious taste
Is worth the cost of the country they’re laying waste?

They’re so insensitive without realising
Their rapist mentality is vandalising

The environment’s pure and natural aesthetic
With cheap vulgarity that’s quite pathetic.

So please feel for the trees as they slowly die
And remember these words which are Nature’s cry.

By Alan Ardy
Writer,
Creative Director

Advertisement

“On the Sea” – A Poem

Here’s sharing this poem I like which is about the sea as a place of solace and freedom for the soul, a healing balm and rejuvenating retreat from the drudgery and artificiality of city life in modern society.

‘On the sea’ by John Keats

“It keeps eternal whisperings around
Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be moved for days from where it sometime fell,
When last the winds of heaven were unbound.
O ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
O ye! whose ears are dinn’d with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody, –
Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood
Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired!“

I like the interpretation of the poem shared in this blog which resonates with me, including this part.

“In the second half of the poem Keats speaks to all those who are weary of the modern world. He commands them to “feast” their eyes upon the “wideness of the sea”. It is in simply the vastness of the sea in which he suggests we can find peace. In the city there are many intricate designs in architecture, there is complex machinery to understand. The sea is massive, and seemingly eternal. Keats here draws an important comparison between life in ‘civilised’ society during the 19th Century, where there were petty conventions and customs that one was obliged to be constantly aware and cautious of, and life in rural areas, where things were considerably less complicated, but more honest, and beautiful. In the same way that Keats finds peace in nature, he also seems to be suggesting that it exists within the poet’s soul. Keats, in godlike fashion, creates this beautiful scene in the poem himself; with his imagination. He imports the notion through this poem that it is not simply the exterior landscapes in which we can find inspiration, but also in interior landscapes; the landscape of our own imaginations. This was an extremely important idea for the Romantics. Keats appears to be condemning the trivial conventions of polite society, inferring that ‘natural’ behaviour is the most desirable.”

(‘On the sea’ by John Keats – emilyardagh)

Yes, perhaps the wild seascape mirrors the interior landscape of our own imaginations, from whence we find peace and inspiration abound.

Related articles

• John Keats “To Autumn” (bheinritz.wordpress.com)

• Nature Sketch – A poem about the twelve apostles in Victoria, Australia