Nature Brutalized Mourns Loss Lost Life Forest Poem by Terence George Craddock

the great forests of Old England
the great forests which covered
all of Europe had already been cut down
with saw with axe with sweat an age
of coal coal mining mighty steam was
still to come timber wood was needed
for making glass skill glass making was
exported to America the original colonies

in Europe the biodiversity of the great forests
had already been destroyed vast life destroyed
animal species not decimated but genocide destroyed
chains links in the ecosystem were not just broken
but extinction gone with habitat loss entire species
extinct extinct totally gone from previous habitat

regions never to be replaced reintroduced extinction gone

this was the real wasteland far more deadly permanent
than a great trench line cut across Europe in World War 1
lasting only from 1914 to 1918 a line of blood mud sliced
diced a mere red ribbon of puppet dancing death land
complete with shelled barbed wire stomach stabbing
bayonets machine guns tanks gas rats lice infestations
screaming shells whining bullets bursting grenades
shrapnel blown apart limbs decaying youth body parts

flash back to an age of coal steam native American genocide

the so called coming of white civilization
to America the great epic colonization
would see a deforestation vast destruction
in ancient pristine forests of primeval America
entire new species hunted to mass extinction
habitat loss burned cut destroyed extinct vast
numbers of incredible species reduced driven
off like vermin to other untouched states in time

history tide migration to face ill-fated cut down
burned off destruction the trees were ghost gone
but small rivers streams still maintained fish stocks
with remnant trees a few along river banks centuries
old trees still littering stream beds these trees were
important parts of ecosystem providing still stretches

of water with rushing rapids protecting bends twists
in rivers streams stops erosion allows last fish species
including prize salmon trout to breed in gravel stone
river stream beds water flows is still river stream water
movement alive but greed men came again realized
large amounts of profit profit good timber lay waiting
in small river stream beds logs were lifted from water
guardian places taken away storm floods snow melt now

scoured scarred river stream beds without log trees
protecting corners bends floods tore out corner sections
entire sections of small river stream banks dirt mud
choked up gravel stone river stream beds fish could not
lay eggs in dirty mud bottoms small rivers streams were
choked life waters ran desolate dead slow stagnant without

oxygenated waters the last great environmental land
rape genocide of nature was now complete humanity
had still learned nothing no lessons of life important
ecosystems biodiversity sacred had not been learned
destruction still incomplete land lung great forests
of Europe North America were gone but greed men
could now move on to the new deforestation of Asia
South America the Amazon the vast vast sea lungs

of the ocean are still being choked first with great
oil spills later with the vast floating plastic oceans
now enter the 2020 plus decades what do you think
humanity will do next do we see lessons learned trees
should have vast forest been replanted fifty years ago
the next best time for replanting saving the planet is

now now now but still we hear a great global silence
the greed machine men are still marching marching on
still producing mountain mountain Mt. Everest tides
of plastic to fill landfills to choke oceans with surface
plastic matts stretching thousands of surface dead miles
covering choking ocean surfaces filling marine animal

gills the great consume consume parasite race humanity
still has not learned to love delicate blue pearl it lives on
planet earth life lungs are dying lesson learning time expiring