Tiger Work, page 2
Blow over ancient oaks
And sequoias.
Saplings having thin
Earth to grow on
Are pale as blonde spiders.
Fishes are dwindling in the sea.
Can you hear the future weeping?
3
In the past we have used fear.
The awakening permafrost
The ice mountains
Of the Antarctic
Will dissolve
And drown our cities.
Deserts will roam
The world at will.
Winters will turn
To blistering summers
And summers will
Turn into hell.
Buckets will find
No water in the well.
Dolphins will perish
On our beaches.
And the ruined ships
That are grounded whales
Will be the common
Sight of our shores.
We have thrown at people
Distressing facts,
Numbers, temperatures,
Loss of species.
Will undersea
Hydrates collapse?
Will the bat and the rhino
Survive? Will the tiger
And the butterfly
Breathe the same air?
Will the fortunes
Of the songbird
Revive? Year by year
Pollination slows down
And insects, little angels,
Grow small in number.
And still we drive
Our fossil fuel cars,
Make flights
Around the world
And consume vast
Amounts of energy.
The car and the aeroplane
Ships and long haulage trucks
The lighting of cities
Buildings alight at night –
It seems to be asking
Too much of us
To alter how we live
So that life on
Earth can survive.
Facts don’t alter our dreams
Or change our minds.
We can’t retrace the track
From the cave to spaceships.
We can’t undo the air conditioner
Or the computer.
Can’t walk backwards
From space stations
To the club or spear
From the oven
Back to the boomerang.
Nobody wants to turn
Back civilisation’s
Clock. No one wants
To regress. Fear
Doesn’t work.
And guilt doesn’t work.
The man who kills
The lion would long
Have closed his heart.
So I thought that maybe
Love could shift our vision
Shift our breath
Shift our dreams
See the far as near
Faraway desert in
The exhaust of a car
Flowering oasis
In the solar panel.
With fear we act
Hastily and unsteadily.
Tear up a friendship
In a chemical mood
Destroy a lifetime’s love
In a manner that’s rude
Lose a future
Close up a past
Brick up the present
So nothing may last.
With love we act wisely,
And comprehensively.
Hold our breath
And wait for the madness
To pass
Let the seed show
What acres it may grow.
Maybe if we all do
Something modest
Then the dead land
Can yield roses again
And desert be fertilised
With marigolds.
Then real change can
Be accomplished.
Maybe it’s not
A going back.
Not a return to the serenity
Of the plough
Or the switch-led bullock
Or walking across the valley
To the remote school
Or fetching water
In a perforated calabash
From a broken river.
Maybe it’s a going forward,
Living in harmony
With ourselves and the world.
Watching the fruit tree bloom
In the quiet season
Drinking the clear water
After the long walk
Listening to the flowers
Furl in the moonlight
Working in the garden
With sunlight and music
Fructifying time
Rewilding our dreams.
Maybe living simply
Is the evolutionary way.
Perhaps we’ve grown
Far too complicated
For our own good.
Want our fruits to ripen
Without much time
Desire the mango and the banana
Out of season
Out of rhyme
Want all the nice
Things of the world
Without paying the price
Technology without
Despoliation
Jewellery without
Exploitation
Latest fashion
Without sweatshops
Living like kings and queens
With faraway peoples
As invisible slaves
To sit on top of the world
With a humming conscience
While colonialism morphs,
And acquires a smooth voice,
A caring demeanour,
Seems to make sense,
But has the same
Deadly effect.
We want more than
We need.
Kind Yangtze, glide smoothly while I sing this song
Kind Yangtze, we know not for the earth how long
4
I think that love
Is the highest
Economy of life.
It moves the world
With an invisible touch.
And the labours of Hercules
Don’t seem so much.
For money we slave
And we plot and we kill
We sweat in the desert
And freeze in the office.
But with love we give gifts
Beyond the cost of life
Never-ending gifts
That transcend time’s strife.
It is the most
Efficient force
For civilisation.
Symmetry in the garden
And the dream of music.
If we woke up
To our love for
The earth
We’d stop doing
Most of the things
We are doing.
No more plastic into the sea
No more hybrids into the earth.
In the Tao Te Ching
There’s a light-crammed
Passage which says
That the sage loves
The world as they love their body.
If the earth were our body
Would we do half the things
To it that we’re doing?
Take a nuclear blast
To the kidney
Smash the heart
With metal spikes
Frack the intestines
Mine the brain
With explosive rain.
Nothing can save
Our world but love.
Contemplating
The beauty of the leaf
Meditating
On the breathing
Of a child
Or cradling in one’s arm
The face the dream.
For love is the last power
That stands between
Us and extinction.
Old Ganga, glide sweetly while I sing this song
Old Ganga, we know not for the earth how long
5
For when we act
With love
We act with all
The great powers
Of the human spirit.
The mother who raises
The car to free her child
The father who labours
From dawn to dawn
No other quality
Comes close
To bringing out
The full genius
Of the human race.
Toughness will fail.
Even the nail
Succumbs to rust.
And will exhausts
Itself in the end.
Armies march to the edge
Of the world
And still the war remains.
Only love is cosmic.
The stars, the heart.
Only love is endless.
6
What we need now
In this eleventh hour
When the bell tolls
From the sinister tower
Is the greatness
Of the human.
Gilgamesh in the form
Of a child.
This is the time
To show that we
Are greater than
Our history, our
Education,
Greater than all
The brainwashing
That makes us feel
That we can’t be
Agents of change.
So I went out into
The streets today
And marched with millions
To light a way
So I said to the armies
Return to the hearth.
Even a child can
Change the day
Even you can
Make a new way.
The greatness we
Need is love. There’s
No true greatness
without this love.
Enkidu is with us
Even as he falls.
Sango is with us
In his darkened cell.
When we love we
Know the right thing to do.
We will divert the river
Through our murky hearts
We will cleanse the wasteland
With our hands and carts.
I’m not here
To prescribe
This or that action –
‘Take out the compost.’
‘Put a solar panel
On that sloping roof.’
‘Don’t drive a car.’
‘Don’t fly if
It’s not far.’
‘Don’t waste water.’
Do you love
This world?
Seas, valleys,
Trees, destinies,
Coral reefs?
Do you love
This earth?
Faces, bodies,
Dreams, hollies?
Then all
You have
To do
Is listen to
Your love.
What did she whisper
By the stream
What did that
Look of his mean?
Don’t do to
The earth
What you
Won’t do
To your body.
Don’t detonate
Nuclear bombs
In the heart
Don’t frack
The eyes
Don’t mine
The genitals
With metal files.
Great Nile, run bravely while I sing my song
Great Nile, we know not for the world how long
7
But the love I’m
Talking about
Is not passive.
Doesn’t sleep
When the baby
Cries on the hot bed
Doesn’t stare
With placid eyes
When a lion
Crouches near.
It is a love that acts
That roars
At the crouching
Shadow
Of tower or power
Of the minister
Who lets the rivers
Turn into sewers.
It is active.
It is a love that stops
Something awful
Happening to
The one you love.
It’s protective.
I went out into
The dark today
And fought to stop
The forest
From falling away.
I raised the alarm
At the fires
In the farm.
Let’s turn
The fierce
Force of
Our love
To saving life
On this planet.
March and sing
And do the tough thing
Demand climate justice
That those who cause
The greater climate damage
Bear the higher cost.
Should the tortoise
Bear the same weight
As the elephant?
Save the earth one
Step at a time.
It’s time we began.
Do it now,
In whatever way
You can.
What is love’s most
Magical quality?
It inspires
Transformation.
The men who killed
Half the earth
Became its
Greatest warriors.
The most indifferent
Into the most passionate.
The hater becomes
A lover
The denier
An elaborator.
Love changes us.
Changes stone
And rust
Dead land
And dust.
Will Gilgamesh
Cut down the trees?
Can the domestic cat
Become a lioness?
Can the rat become
A tiger, or the bat
A glimmering unicorn?
Will Humbaba
Defend forests?
Can Homo sapiens leap
Into something higher
Not superman
But transcendent being?
Can we become
Something more
Needing a new name?
We have
Got to achieve
That rare
Thing, a
Quantum
Leap in our
Life’s possibilities.
From devouring
The earth
To making a world;
From waste
To conservation;
From pollution
To transmutation.
Everything we need
Is here, sun, sea,
Earth, wind,
Imagination, will,
Vision, love, mind.
We need
To leap
Right now
To the next stage
Of our evolution.
Maybe this was
The only way we were
Going to get there.
Through the dead-end
And the climate terminus
The follies in the garden.
Maybe we’re only
Forced to make this leap
Because we’ve nowhere
Else to go
We’ve run out
Of road
And instead
Of tipping over
Into our own abyss
We do the unthinkable
And leap to the next stage
Of the human.
In the dying minutes
Of our millennial drama.
Without
This leap
There’s no
Future.
It’s too late
To stroll
To the next
Stage. Too
Late to let
It happen
Organically.
Too late
To let nature
Take its course.
In that
Sense, we
Are at
A terminal
Moment.
At no other
Time has the world
Depended on us
On what we do
Or don’t do.
The trees look
At us
And wonder
Dogs regard
Us with
Quizzical eyes
Newborn
Babies stare
At us and
Mutely ask
If we know
What we’re
Doing.
The future
Pauses
At the gasoline
Station
Waiting for
A lift
To itself.
The past
Looks forward
At us
And recoils
At the consequences
Of itself.
The present
Waits coiled
Between
Abyss
And the
Unknown.
It is either
Death or
Transformation.
It is either
Extinction or
Becoming a
Newer,
More efficient
Species.
Will the bees
In the garden
Pollinate?
Will the seed
Unfurl
Into new
Flowers?
Will we harness
The mycelium
Realm, create networks
To the future?
Will the dance
In the garden
Levitate?
Will the smoke
Light
Its own fire?
Will the end
Of time
Be the beginning
Of a new
World?
Will we
Bequeath
To the ages
A transcendent
Light?
Will our cars
Sail through
The air
With the power
Of our thought?
Will the new energy
Of the future
Be spiritual?
Will we power
Our homes
With the orgasm?
Will the planes
Sail through
The air with
The collective
Electricity
Of passengers?
Will we discover
The infinite
Source
Of energy
That was always
There,
Within us
In the eternal
Substances
Of the air
And light?
Isn’t it time
For that
Unexpected
Flight?
Nothing
Ordinary
Can achieve this.
Only love can do it.
Can’t you
Hear the
Future
Weeping?
Our love
Must save
The world.
AND PEACE SHALL RETURN
