Today, Wednesday’s words are all about Mother Earth.

The world is finite, resources are scarce,
Things are bad and will be worse,
Coal is burned and gas exploded,
Forests out and soil eroded,
Wells are dry and air polluted,
Dust is blowing, trees uprooted,
Oil is going, ores depleted,
Drains receive what is excreted,
Land is sinking, seas are rising,
Man is far too enterprising,
Fires will rage with man to fan it,
Soon we will have a plundered planet.
- K. E Boulding

Future

Sweet Mother Earth, lovely daughter of Ra
wonderful cosmic creation you are
spinning through aeons evolving and shaping
dying from twenty short decades of raping
now you are burning, in sadness you smolder
heat slowly rising yet future looks colder
Soon all your children will hurt you no more
mankind raps loudly on grim reaper’s door
dragged to its future as convicts in chains
rivers and streams clogged like varicose veins.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. ~Henry David Thoreau

Forests and fields turn to debris and dust
greed and abandonment violates trust
dig, rip and kill is the cry of the age
teardrops are falling on history’s page
written in blood from the animals lost
profits are rising, so discount the cost.

Rush through their lives as the air above burns
see daily damage, yet nobody learns
meek is the voice from humanity’s cry
too busy gathering trinkets to try.

Slowly your body turns barren and bare
the future is written – there isn’t one there.

- Graeme King

Happy Earth Day. Let’s try and take care of Mother Earth.

Wordless Wednesday is on a break today, to allow for Blog Action Day. This year’s theme is poverty.

During this time of financial crisis in our country, it is understandable that people are tightening their wallets and worrying about themselves and their own. Times are tough for (almost) everyone. If you are reading this blog, however, I’m guessing that you have eaten a decent meal recently. I’d also be willing to bet there is a beverage sitting precariously close to your keyboard: coffee, soda, water (in my case, all of the above).

Those of you reading this in FLA still have your central air on (though your bill keeps going up), and those of you reading this in Denver have probably just started turning your heat on at night. You’re sitting now at your own computer, with some lights on somewhere, your cellphone charging, your iPod plugged in, and only a quarter tank of gas in your car. Or you’re at work.

Those of you reading this blog (and I know who you are because you are my friends and my family ) are definitely not rich. But you are not poor, either. Things are tough, but there is still money for a decent meal, cold water, energy, a computer, the internet, a cellphone, gas, etc., etc., etc.

On this, Blog Action Day for Poverty, I’m asking you to consider your surroundings. Be thankful for all that you are blessed with. Take the time to appreciate all you have. Many are not so fortunate.

This is what poverty looks like in America:

And this is what poverty looks like in Africa: