Necessity – Public Service Bulletin

This poem was written in 2016, during valiant Native-led resistance to
ghastly-dangerous and utterly sacrilegious Petroleum Pipelines
that money-mad Corporate Criminals were then gashing
across ancient Sacred Ground in US. Great Plains.

“Prophecy Of Climate Catastrophe”

[ Dakota Pipeline Protests .. {-Wikipedia-} ]

:::
One of us
should tour our Dakota camps
with a military eye,
inspect the methods of supply,
interview troops from both sides
of the struggle there,
and write a study.

We need to understand
the military aspects of our revolution.
:::

For example, I have seen
one single tantalizing photo
said to show the main
Sacred Stone Camp’s perimeter;

With one of our people standing
inside of it, and a policeman standing
outside on a road beyond.

This long barrier looks to be made carefully
of heavy materials – showing hard labor and
practical experience – so its form surely gives
information on the para­meters of a struggle
like ours in these times.

So I’ve studied the photo,
considered my experience
in struggle at Occupy camps,
and gained some understanding
of the barrier’s functioning.
:::

Or is that kind of
thinking OBSOLETE already?

I have also seen today’s URGENT NEWS
from scientists far northwards
at the Arctic Ocean;

News of overwhelming PIVOTAL
SIGNIFICANCE for our struggle,
and all others in this
age on Earth.
:::

[ Arctic Methane Emissions .. {-Wikipedia-} ]

METHANE IS NOW ESCAPING
In UNMEASURABLY HUGE Quantity
From MELTING ARCTIC TUNDRA,
The gas of rotting prairie sod
that was frozen until now.

Gas that’s been trapped in hard frozen arctic ground,
ever since an autumn two million years ago,
when Earth’s last Ice Age began;

But now observed released by Global Warming,
now observed rising from melting ground
in uncountable huge col­umns lighter
than our low levels of Earth’s air;

Rising VERY HIGH where it is spreading,
not restrainable by ANY conceivable human effort;

Crossing all human boundaries,
spreading now to paint
a pale pale sheen on the blue high sky;

A worldwide mirror
to hold Sun heat in here
even more.
:::

This coming year will
be a year of great disasters,
like Last Year and like the next;

But maybe this coming year will be the
first to land blow after brutal blow,
and stunning blow, and blow,
decisively on the huge
collapsing empire
of America;

And so our revolution’s
current hopes will disappear,
like most all other current hopes.

This year or soon, this is indeed
when things will come
down to a nub.
:::

So then, will we struggle on
for the life and breath
of our descendants?

As best we can, we shall; .. But how?

First:
It is essential that we tell the story of these
heroic times, and tell it beautiful and true, and to
that end we must truly live our story too; For that
legend is our ONLY means of com­mu­nication
with the future ones.

And Second:
We must each do ANY effective work
toward Sanity and Love and Beauty we can
do; By any means applicable; Under leadership
of our own Heart and Soul, with whatever help and
courage come to hand; .. For that is our ONLY
available principle of organization.

And Third:
SOME OTHER RULE
that will undoubt­edly come clear
to fill the desperate needs of mere survival.

And SOME OTHER RULE for
health and healthy children in
a poisoned world.

And SOME OTHER RULE for
living overwhelmed with grief.

And SOME OTHER RULE,
or at least some rules of thumb;
For:
Sheltering from drought, and
hurricane, and ravaging armies,
and NUCLEAR BOMBS.
:::

[ Nuclear Explosion Effects .. {-Wikipedia-} ]

OR;
Maybe what we need to do is this:

Tell ourselves that while we live,
we ought to really live;

And tell ourselves that
when we die we die, and may perhaps
find better understanding there;

But through it all:
REMEMBER WHO WE WERE,
and what we strove for:

We are Earth’s Children
and our strivings are
for Her.

[ The Poem “Invictus” .. {-Wikipedia-} ]

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::
(- Here is the end of this poem.-)