River Reflections
by Scott T. Starbuck

Multitudes of hands
open and close
like sea anemones,

blindly
by Nature’s law
learning to feed

and breathe,
growing pseudo-gills
in foul waters

wavy moss,
below stony eyes,
cans and boxes

and these hands,
once connected
to ancient arms,

retain memories
of healing
and wholeness

blocked by
countless excuses,
false teachings,

other lies.

~

Scott T. Starbuck’s Trees, Fish, and Dreams Climateblog has readers in 110 countries, and has been praised by editors Adeline Johns-Putra of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, and Kelly Sultzbach of University of Wisconsin, La Crosse in The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Climate. He taught ecopoetry workshops the past six years at Scripps (UCSD Masters in Climate Science and Policy). His book Bridge at the End of the World, New and Selected [Climate] Poems, won a 2023 Blue Light Book Award, and his Hawk on Wire was selected from over 1,500 books as a 2018 Montaigne Medal Finalist at Eric Hoffer Awards.

Featured image: Photo of anemones by jggrz at pixabay.com

Author’s note: “River Reflections” is about healthy and unhealthy transformations. The poem was inspired by walking along various rivers, and noticing how light and shadows played in the conscious and unconscious mind along with the big question “Do humans belong on Earth, and if so, how?” Industrialized humans are clearly the “Death Star” featured in the film Star Wars, but we don’t have to be, and won’t be for long unless we get into alignment with the Ancient Laws of Physics which completely ignore modern distractions of stakeholders, funding sources, constituencies, and political or administrative agendas masquerading as necessary for personal and collective success. As the poet Rumi said, “God is the only real customer,” or Joni Mitchell sang in “Woodstock.”

Billion year old carbon
Caught in the devil’s bargain
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden