A poem a day--Day 1--Grey Whale Die Off

At this solstice time I vow to write a poem a day for a solar year and post them here as I can.
(Although, when I decide to submit certain poems to literary journals, I'll delete them first from this blog.) Today I begin with the first poem of the cycle.

Grey Whale Die Off

Mamakocha ocean vomited 

160 Grey Whale corpses 

onto West Coast beaches so far this year.

The federal government is running out of space to bury the decomposing behemoths.

Scientist claim to have no idea why they are dying.

One Port Townsend couple with beach-front property “adopts” a whale corpse. It’s educational to watch it decompose. (Are we watching the species decompose?) The whale’s starved belly holds only bits of plastic and lots of eel grass, neither of which is part of their normal arctic diet. Desperation food that does not nourish whales.

A whale expert postpones alarm. First, he questions, “Is there any relationship to climate change? Does this link to any factors that might affect other species as well?”

Questions that reveal cluelessness about our interconnection on this blue-green planet rolling through the universe whose super-novad stars constitute our bodies. Our whale bodies. Our human bodies. The sea womb of life on this planet, the seawater red in our veins.

Our star dust bodies course seawater blood, yet we forgot the name of our Mother. 

Some stardust-seawater bodies called “human” manipulate decomposed dinosaurs into plastic, pollution, burning belches from factory stacks, car, truck, train, ship exhaust.

Forgetting “All Our Relations” some stardust-seawater bodies mass-produce deforested chemical pumped cows’ farts heating the globe.

Global heating climate crisis in this cauldron of planetary soup that is cooking us all.

Will someone please turn off the stove?

In the Salish Sea Native Americans sing and drum to killer whale Orca cousins and their still-born babies, slipping them a ceremonial salmon, hoping to stave off whale extinction.

Extinction Rebellion dances and sings a street closed in front of City Hall in Portland, Oregon.

We the people declare a climate emergency now now now.

 About this poem 

Inspired by personal experience and the following news reports:

https://nypost.com/2019/06/21/the-west-coast-is-running-out-of-space-to-put-dead-whales/

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/733955563/got-space-for-a-dead-whale

https://nypost.com/2019/04/05/federal-officials-support-native-tribes-push-for-only-whale-hunt-in-us/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/orca-starving-washington-feed-salmon-lummi-native-american

https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/06/climate-change-protest-blocks-street-in-downtown-portland.html

https://nypost.com/2019/04/05/federal-officials-support-native-tribes-push-for-only-whale-hunt-in-us/

Paris Attacks: Give Peace a Chance

It’s terrible what happened in Paris. I mourn in deepest sympathy.

Yet I do not hate and saber-rattle, calling for war. Why? As Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda wrote, “Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel…Nothing is more pitiful than a nation being swept along by fools.”

Tokyo after Allied bombing raid (March 1945) 

Photo: daisakuikeda.org

Ikeda, who grew up in war-torn Japan, has dedicated his life to ending war and spreading peace through a process called ‘human revolution.’ In the first volume of his series of novels The New Human Revolution, Ikeda cites the great pacifist, Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi led India to independence 

through the nonviolent methods of 

civil disobedience. Photo: Wikimedia

Gandhi proclaimed that the ‘power of the spirit’ is stronger than any…bomb. To transform this century of war into a century of peace, we must cultivate the limitless inherent power of human life. This is the ‘human revolution’…

Ikeda bases the concept of ‘human revolution’ on the writings of 13th-century Japanese Buddhist reformer Nichiren Daishonin. Based on deep study of the teachings (sutras) of the Buddha, Nichiren criticized the people in power in his country for their beliefs and assumptions, for they were causing harm to the people.

These erroneous beliefs and assumptions, he argued, were the causes of the civil unrest, attacks from foreign countries, extreme weather, and epidemics that left bodies piled up like cordwood in his island home of Japan.

What were these erroneous beliefs and assumptions? Are they still around, causing misery in today’s world? And what correct beliefs and assumptions did Nichiren advocate would cause peace and happiness?

The erroneous beliefs and assumptions in general were that humanity was a hierarchy where those at the top had the right to manipulate everyone else in order to maintain their own privileged position of power, no matter how much suffering they caused.

Are these beliefs and assumptions still around today, causing misery? The answer is obvious: Yes.

What beliefs and assumptions did Nichiren say were correct, for causing peace and happiness? He cited the Lotus Sutra, claiming that all humans are equal. We are all interconnected with everything, down to the minutest particle of dust, in the great and sacred mystery called ‘Life.’

Interestingly, these beliefs and assumptions are shared by all the indigenous cultures I am aware of, especially hunter-gatherer cultures who have lived sustainably on this planet for thousands of years.

Some people distil these correct beliefs and assumptions into the phrase “We are One.”

Awake to this reality of our interconnection, of our oneness, our equality, we are called Buddhas – awakened ones. If we are awake to our Buddha attributes of limitless courage, compassion and wisdom, Nichiren claimed we can transform our lives, countries and world into a place of ‘eternally tranquil light.’

Violence only begets violence. The cycle must stop.

World Peace. Art: LynetteYetter.com

The killings in Paris are part of a cycle based on erroneous beliefs and assumptions. Now is a time when we can pause and start a new cycle – a cycle of waking up to our oneness with each other, with our Mother Earth and indeed the entire universe.

Ancestral teachings of many cultures advocate this.

Nichiren taught that we can speed up our awakening, our human revolution, with the practice of chanting the mantra “nam-myoho-renge-kyo” to stir up our Buddha-wisdom. Based on that wisdom we take action to make positive change for our own happiness and the happiness of all our relations.

May the poison of the killings in Paris be transformed into the medicine of world peace.

As we say in Bolivia, Jallalla. It’s an Aymara term imbued with hope and determination to work intensely to make our dreams become reality.

And as my Lakota teacher, Peji, taught me — Ho. “Come on! Let’s do it now!”



First published as "Paris Attacks: Give Peace a Chance" on BlogCritics.org