Rising Up Poetry

We are Rising Up

We are the trees,

Conifer, poplar, ash and oak.

We are the birds,

Jay, magpie, kingfisher, wagtail and raven.

We are the animals,

Squirrel, badger, vole, field mouse and human.

We are the soil,

Earth, leaf, fungi, microbe and worm.

We are the insects,

Butterfly, moth, ant, fly and bee.

We are the plants,

Beetroot, comfrey, plantain, dandelion and doc.

We are the elements,

Water, sky, earth, fire and void.

We the inhabitants of the Frome Valley, of this city, of this land, call on you

You, the Mayor, the partnership of WoE, the Councils of CUBA, big businesses and property developers of Bristol alike,

We call on you to change your mind, your priorities, your designs

Let us live in peace, in harmony, in tune,

Bristol needs us more than your bus routes for big business.

Hear us, listen,

Repent – change your ways

Whilst you can.

Heed our cry

Consider what you do, be careful, be warned

Whilst you can.

Desecrate, destroy and defile our nest and home, our kith and kin, and know that:

Our life blood, our sap, our young will cry out against you!

Expropriators and exploiters all,

Expect resistance.

Defilers of the land,

We will defy you.

Until long after you have joined those buried under tarmac in the grave, and

Until long after your schemes have collapsed,

We will demand atonement – that justice be done

Remember this and know:

The land is ours, and

We have the power, and that

We will rise again.

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Oak tree dawn

 The Sun rises calmly up

In the narrow gap between the black tree line and the low lying bank of clouds that frame its horizon.

The fingers of its glory

Gently stroking the buds and branches of the trees,

Eliciting a chorus of joy from its feathered inhabitants

As they flitter and flirt with its tender embrace.

A robin rises up

From the cover of the grove below me to alight on a ichen covered oak branch

And sings…….to me,

Posing a beautiful question in the face of the desecration that is to come,

….tears mingle with the frozen dew.

A cold hard light catches my eye,

The glistening and glinting steel of the lock-on beside my head. 

We are rising up.

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