NVN Sunday: 2 Poems on What We Are Losing
“Dopping the Pilots” by James Penha; “Southern Birds Move North” by Martha Deed
DROPPING THE PILOTS
by James Penha
The last of nearly 100 whales that beached on the southwestern Australian coast were euthanized Wednesday after a second day of frantic, but unsuccessful efforts to rescue them, authorities said. The pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves Tuesday on Cheynes Beach east of the former whaling station of Albany in Western Australia state, south of the capital Perth. Despite the efforts of 100 wildlife officers and 250 volunteers wearing wetsuits to protect against the Southern Hemisphere winter cold, 52 stranded whales died on the beach. The remaining 45 were euthanized Wednesday after efforts to lead them to deeper water failed… Pilot whales are highly social animals and maintain complex familial relationships with their pods from birth. Drone footage released by the state government showed the whales clustering and forming into a heart shape before stranding themselves on the beach. —AP, July 27, 2023
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James Penha edits The New Verse News.
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SOUTHERN BIRDS MOVE NORTH
gigan by Martha Deed
The dense, green woodlands of Germany that gave rise to the "Grimms' Fairy Tales" are turning gray and dying. Forest still covers a third of the country, but 80% of all trees are sick. Weakened by years of drought, they now face another onslaught—bark beetles. As Esme Nicholson reports, some blame commercial forestry, but others say it's climate change. —NPR, July 26, 2023
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The trees have gone gray. I can see the sky. Bark Beetles take advantage of the drought that has weakened the trees. I remember the young professor’s wife in 1960 weeping that we are ruining the planet when others were distracted by nuclear threats when my father in 1950 had already said Cardinals and other Southern birds are moving North. They are building nests. The trees have gone gray weeping that we are ruining the planet while the doomed children focus on learning how to tie their shoes learning to focus on what we can control and to ignore the rest.
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Author’s Note: Ruth Ellen Kocher invented the gigan form.
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Martha Deed’s third poetry collection Haunted By Martha was released by FootHills Publishing, July 2023. She has published ten books (poetry, mixed media, non-fiction) and ten chapbooks along with inclusion in more than 20 poetry anthologies. Individual poems have appeared in The New Verse News, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Earth’s Daughters, First Literary Review—East, Shampoo, Gypsy, and many others.
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