After Mary Oliver and her wonderful poem, The Wild Geese (1986).
You do have to be good.
You have to walk that
extra hundred miles along the coast.
Let your fingers collect the plastic detritus
and cleanse that which you love.
Tell me about your anger and I will tell you of mine.
Meanwhile, earthlife is in retreat.
Meanwhile the human shadow
transforms unsuspecting landscapes,
into factory farms and dairy herds
the aquiculture rings and oil rigs.
Meanwhile the Cape Barren Geese fly the roaring 40s
yearning for predator-free islands.
Whoever you are, no matter how isolated,
the world demands that you now care,
calls to you like Cape Barren Geese, harsh and grunting
indignantly protecting its endangered place
in the family of life.
