POETRY

Do any of you remember Lord Byron's poem,

"Apostrophe to the Ocean"?
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar...
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
MAN MARKS THE EARTH WITH RUIN, HIS CONTROL
STOPS WITH THE SHORE; ...
HIS STEPS ARE NOT UPON THY PATHS, THY FIELDS
ARE NOT A SPOIL FOR HIM..."

Byron could not imagine that man could destroy the ocean. He could see the destruction by man of the earth even in 1820. But, surely the ocean was beyond man's reach. With ever greater knowledge and technology we are now able to destroy the air we breath, the water we drink, and even the ocean. The coral reefs are dying, many species of fish are becoming extinct, the whales are endangered, fishing nets scrape and destroy everything on the bottom of the ocean floor, there are dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, there is a huge pool of garbage in the Pacific Ocean, and on and on. The air we breathe and fish we eat contain mercury that is poisoning our children. We are planning to destroy the rest of our fresh water supplies with fracting for natural gas. We don't really need to drink water. We can find something else to drink. The Everglades are basically gone. Many people say that we need to give up on this planet and move to another one. But we do not really have the capability for that. Our capability seems to be mostly destructive. Sixty years ago we were told that man would find a way to dispose of nuclear waste safely. But that has never happened.

I remember another poem, one by Emily Dickinson.
"The year's at the spring, the day's at the morn.
Morning's at seven, the hillside's dew pearled.
The lark's on the wing, the snail's on the thorn.
God is in heaven, all's right with the world."

Not many of us would feel this way anymore.