Pollution and Climate Awareness Poems – Bev Tappan

RIVERWOODS POEMS: A CHRISTMAS LAMENT

Bev Tappan — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 08:49:00 +0000

When it’s raining in December

We know climate change is here

And we hardly can remember

When the snow brought Christmas cheer.

Then the sleigh bells all were jingling

As we coasted over the snow

And our voices all were mingling

In the carols we still know.

Now alas the gray rain’s falling

On the streets so wet and bare.

It is really quite appalling

That there’s not a snowflake there.

And the lakes are all unfrozen.

We’ve forgotten how to ski.

Oh we never should have chosen

To enact this tragedy.

(RiverWoods Poems, Dec. 2021)

RIVERWOODS POEMS: SNOW COVER

Bev Tappan — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 18:45:42 +0000

Snow Cover

The falling snow’s benevolent.

It blankets all our sins,

Bestows a clean environment

In which we can begin

To walk with tar-free tread,

To rid the air of soot,

To leave no trash that spreads

Like excrement in the woods,

A whiteboard on which we can write

With a pen in invisible ink,

A foretaste of heaven’s delight

Or so we would like to think

Til the wind begins to blow,

Dissipates the cloak of snow.

RIVERWOODS POEMS: THE CHOICE

Bev Tappan — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:34:37 +0000

THE CHOICE

In autumn the golden willow weeps

While saffron leaves still cling to the beech.

In a lengthening line we’ve come to stand

For the water of life in an arid land.

As wildfires rage in southern climes

As aquifers shrink, as wells go dry

We hold our protest signs up high.

Cars honk approval as they go by.

It’s oil or water: they do not mix.

In the end the choice comes down to this:

We’ll keep the petrol in the ground

Or life on earth will no longer be found.

This morning black ice, a dusting of white

Remind us of winter’s implacable might.

TAMWORTH POEMS: EARLY WARNING

Bev Tappan — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 16:45:26 +0000

EARLY WARNING

For all you leaf peepers who know

To come up to the Whites in October,

You may be too late for the show.

Our maples are reddening early.

Leaves and needles are brown.

It is only late September, but

We are suffering from a drought.

Some branches are already bare.

By the time most of you get here,

We may have no vistas to share.

Is this the promise of the future?

Has the time come to mourn the maples?

That is a most depressing picture,

And for spring sugaring it bodes ill.

TAMWORTH POEMS: NOSTALGIA

Bev Tappan — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 20:01:25 +0000

NOSTALGIA

We look at old time pictures

To see how thick the ice

Once froze to hold our fish shacks,

How deep the hole to pull the pike

Or perch or pickerel through.

Those were the days when snow

Would drift up to the windows

And we would hire men to clear

The porch or sun room roof.

The yearly dogsled races

Were held on Winnepesaukee.

There was cross country skiing.

Snowshoes were more than ornaments.

Old photos show how it was.

RIVERWOODS POEMS: WISHFUL THINKING

Bev Tappan — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 21:46:57 +0000

WISHFUL THINKING

Carbon is not our only bane.

More dangerous is potent methane

Rising from every cattle herd,

From every landfill undeterred

And melting permafrost up north:

In cumulus clouds it billows forth.

Four hundred thousand Hiroshimas

Equal one day of noxious gases.

Oh for a breath of Eden’s clear

Unpolluted ambient air,

Oceans of fat unfettered fish,

Springs of water pure and fresh,

Verdant fields immune to drought

And temperate zephyrs from the south.

RIVERWOODS POEMS: THE WINTER THAT WASN’T

Bev Tappan — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 22:15:20 +0000

THE WINTER THAT WASN’T

On February first the wind

Leapt up in my face and opened

My jacket, which I did not mind

So balmy and soft was the air.

It felt like the first day of March

Roaring in, dissolving the snow,

Summoning vultures whose harsh

Cries raised my eyes to the sky.

And so they continue, these warm

Days with cold nights which cause

Our maple tree owners alarm

Lest their syrup season founder.

Behind us the two warmest years

On record and now a foreshortened

Winter: it surely appears

Our New England climate has altered.

TAMWORTH POEMS: PINKHAM NOTCH SEPTEMBER 2015

Bev Tappan — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:09:53 +0000

PINKHAM NOTCH: SEPTEMBER 2015

It hurts my heart when I discern

Our flaming maples brown-edged and sere

At that ebullient time of year

That brings the tourists to our region.

And birches’ withered yellow leaves

Are curled and dropping from the trees

Depressing my spirits seriously.

The Appalachians I have loved,

Famed for fall foliage brilliance,

May not deserve a second glance

Without their scarlet Redcoats.

I’m glad I won’t be here to read

That chapter in their history.

TAMWORTH POEMS: A PRAYER FOR OUR PLANET

Bev Tappan — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 17:47:12 +0000

A PRAYER FOR OUR PLANET

He came to our UU pulpit,

A self-confessed atheist

And erudite eco-biologist,

Not to redeem our souls

But to attune our thoughts

To the awesome universe of microbes

That shape and manipulate our bodies:

Our bodies that themselves are habitats,

Complex eco-systems,

Some of which will endure,

Some of which will go extinct.

Our eco-mentor mentioned

That we are part of a larger

Biota, our region of earth,

And we are all connected

To every living thing,

Some of which may endure

Most of which will go extinct.

That is largely up to us.

Master of all universes,

Almighty Force and Source,

Guide us in our choices.

TAMWORTH POEMS: AS PLAIN AS BLACK AND WHITE

Bev Tappan — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:17:25 +0000

AS PLAIN AS BLACK AND WHITE

Except when the next polar vortex

Launches its ice shafts from the Arctic

The winters in northern Maine ain’t

What they used to be. Our partially frozen

Lakes no longer hold up our trucks

And fishing shacks. Our skis skid

On glazed and glistening worn-down snow.

On this first day of the new year

The Androscoggin still flows free

From Gorham east to Rumford, where

Another dam delays it long enough

For icy platelets to collect and merge

Into almost-circles of white on black,

An abstract Escher-like design or pattern

That seems to hold some urgent message

For those with eyes wide open to see.