Visionary poetry uses powerful imagery and words to engage us in thought processes that challenge our perception of ourselves and the world around us. It is meant to provide thought-provoking material. Eventually, we must rethink our current political and economic structures and alter our values and our ideas about success. Change is possible. We can meet the demand to replace a linear economic model with sustainable, circular and long-lasting solutions. Where We Are and Where We Are Going is a piece of visionary poetry that explores consumerism and the longing to find an equitable future. It is imperative that we initiate a change to move away from an individualistic point of view to a more holistic and all-encompassing future.
Where we are
Me! Me! Me! Mine! Want! Mine! Need!
A generation lost in unsatisfying greed.
Consume, consume and then consume some more
Dark, diabolic solutions offered from the white house door
Corporations need puppets to manipulate at will
A linear economic model, that hard-to-swallow pill
A pharmaceutical solution for every woman, every man
Wall marketing, so even our children understand
Buy! Buy! Buy! Endlessly singing our external song
A continuing, inexhaustible mind-numbing wrong
The light we seek to block with mountains of our discarded needs
The green becomes the black. The monocultures of our GM Seeds
Consumption, glorious consumption! Lest I can miss the Warning Bell
Ignoring that I am fast approaching the Burning Gates of Hell
Even though I am at the brink, balancing on the edge
Consume, consume is my never-ending pledge
Environmental damage?
On the world’s other side?
Is it not worth the magnificent carpet ride?
Fantastic! Me! Me! Me! I know I deserve the best
All of it for me.
Then I’ll be damned with all the rest
Where we are going
Us! Us! We! We! We! and that includes us All
Every living species on this incredible, big, blue ball.
Giving back and giving back and giving back some more
A tidal wave of change comes crashing on our shores
A new lexicon of language changing the way we think
Through our localism, transition towns, and permaculture links
Nutrient-dense incredible edibles that the soil food web grows
Laws protecting nature, let earth democracy flow.
Ecological governance, let us unite, let’s make a stand
Care for the people and the earth, returning surplus to the land
Energy is flying in the wind and living off the light
With ocean tides and river runs and geothermal knights
Terra Preta, living soil from the Amazon’s far away days.
We seek to replicate you in the most responsible of ways
Economics based on functional ecosystems is more than necessary
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies! Wow that’s visionary
Garbage warriors in Earthships
Valhalla’s Freedom Culture Stance
Eco villages, schools, and groups committed to an eco-eco dance
Can Neal, Geoff and John’s work to reverse desertification
make you believe in large-scale ecosystem rehabilitation?
Mother Nature’s Lessons
Observe, protect, analyze and act
We all need to go into service; we all need to make a pact
The Tragedy of the Commons becomes the Common Good
Solutions are relatively simple; implement them if you would
Redesign inclusive models with ethical responsibility
Enthusiastically embrace circular, sustainable possibilities
A generation motivated, a generation working to be free
To generate hope and inspiration on which we can all agree.
Linking us together is the change we seek to make
A better world for everyone is what we will create
Make your life count. The future is in your hands.
Take a leap into the movement and see where you land.
by Cheri-Lynn McCabe and Sandra Bartram
