The Colloquium following our time on the Alternative Fall Break was tonight. I was highly impressed by all of the presentations from fellow Ship students. I find it interesting that everyone brought back different perspectives and applications from the same experience. Everybody was able to synthesize information and apply findings to their own interests and specialities. You know that a cause is special and important when so many people can be positively affected in so many different ways!
I myself am an English major and thought it would be impossible to find anything on Wallops Island that I could bring back that related to my major. I was wrong! I was personally inspired by activities that we participated in on the Fall Break. In addition, I am also inspired by the legacy that Rachel Carson has left us. I would like to leave you with the poem that I wrote about her life and our call to action.
Blue and Green: A Tribute to Rachel Carson
She walks with the glow of tree-filtered sun in her eyes
Dancing black shapes in the windy breeze
Printing dark colors on those irises that would
See the world and long to keep it blue and green.
She wrote words of report, elevated into poetry
The world she saw made her believe.
Science intrigued her, beauty inspired.
Her treacherous truths lingered in public eyes.
Whispered words they were; to not be deceived.
Pesticides kill and nature recedes.
Silent Springs ruptures silent dreams
When earth coddles degradation.
Man is echoing, echoing, echoing in his trail,
And only Rachel hears reverberations.
The sea wraps her silky fingers around our plantetal bodies. Affectation. An all consuming tide. The sea washes her silent words over our cold hearts and sustains our landly trysts. She pushes and pulls and makes us whole, but we never say thanks.
Waters flow in Rachel’s eyes, blurring that gaze
That saw blackness pooling on our belovéd oceans
Polluting the beauty and truth we once knew.
One good conscience crying for generations forward
Rachel spoke for the currents.
For the earth.
For us.
Of the sea and all around us.
Mustn’t we say thanks?
Earth reflecting in her gentle eyes
Closed before nature was redeemed.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Blue and Green
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4 comments:
Jenn,
Amazing Poem. I had cold chills when you read this last night and I had cold chills reading it again today. Remarkable, insightful, and well done! Put your name on this one!
I have to agree that the Colloquium went so well. Students from so many varying majors all came together to show what they learned. The poem was so amazing and touching. I'm glad that we all took the time to remember Rachel Carson.
I do not think I enjoyed the colloquium as much as the others who have posted but I have to admit that it was definitly a good experience to have. It was interesting to see the number of different groups that went on this trip; I did not realize there were so many. Sadly, it seemed like most of them had the same things to say. This is not the fault of the presenters or the groups, it was just the unavoidable format of the colloquium since everyone went on the same trip.
I also had trouble watching myself up on the screen in the short film by the Environmetal Sociology class. I wish more people had decided to participate in that production. It probably should have been made part of the grade so that one person did not end up sticking out. Perhaps no one else thought that I came across this way but my personality makes it difficult for me to see the situation in any other way. To top everything else off I was the last speaker on that movie so I got to be the lucky person who faded to gray and had that corny song playing in the background. This was not exactly the image I wanted everyone to have of me at the end of the night.
Sigh, ok, I am done being negative. It was still a good night, and I heard a number of topics and ideas that I had not thought of. I thought there would only be a few things a person could talk about during this colloquium but I was surprised a few times nonetheless by the inventiveness of the information presented. Kudos to all those who presented; you all did well, and I am glad you were courageous enough to get up there so that I would not have to.
Commenting in reference to peanut's note that our trip had many different groups of people, I feel that gives us a powerful advantage. It is one thing to be in a single group and try to affect change outside of the group, but it is something entirely different when people from completely different majors, years, and classes are represented. We didn't know each other well before the trip. This means many of us may have friends that are not friends with anyone else who went. And that means, if we make the effort to try and influence the habits of ourselves and those we know, all the more people will become aware of the dire situation with which we are faced, concerning both the Chesapeake and the environment as a whole. The key now, is calling those people to action.
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