Beauties And The Beasts

My journey takes me places
Places I never thought I might go
To lakes and forests and mountains so high
And to ocean’s bottom deep below

There is beauty in every face
On everything my eyes can see
From tiny fish to weathered canyon
To fields of grain to old and mighty tree

I also found beasts, bent on destruction
Their appearance varied a little, but they were all the same
They ravaged the oceans and raped the forests
So few of them felt the least bit of shame

I named the beasts for myself
For I knew I was one of them, too
We are mankind and we create and destroy
With little care about which we might do

I am embarrassed to be human
For the wastelands we create, the beasts we are
We could preserve Earth’s beauty
Instead we use and abuse it, we go too far

But as with all guilt, with all of things of shame
There is a path to salvation which patiently waits
We need only look to find it, to know it, to be it
And then to live it, and know Nature’s fate

For no matter what we do,
No matter how harsh and cruel we may be
Nature will win in the end
And to her winning side there is a path I can see

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This was inspired by two things: 1. I watched a TED Talk by Jim Toomey, the creator of Sherman’s Lagoon.  In it he talks a bit about how we are damaging the ocean and her residents, and it made me a bit sad.  And b., my roommate told me the next Disney DVD I should get is Beauty And The Beast.  Thus the theme and title of this poem.  I hope you enjoyed it and hope you take its lesson to heart.

Speaking of beasts and natural things, politics is its own beast and there is a beastly proposition on Colorado’s ballot this fall.  I have a lovely rant about it for Monday already written.  See you then.