avatarAdelia Ritchie, PhD

Summary

The website content is a reflective essay on maintaining hope in the face of ecological decline, illustrated through a personal experience in a vegetable garden and a challenge to write a poem using specific words.

Abstract

The author of the essay shares a moment of beauty and resilience observed in their vegetable garden, where a delicate butterfly lingers among honeybees on a borage bush, symbolizing a pleasant exception to the grim narrative of the "sixth extinction" theory. Despite the visible reduction in native species, particularly barn swallows, the author calls for a rejection of despair and insists on hope and collective action to combat climate change and carbon pollution. The essay also includes a personal anecdote about a writing challenge issued to a workshop group, emphasizing the importance of creativity and optimism in addressing environmental issues.

Opinions

  • The author views the presence of the butterfly as a symbol of hope amidst ecological concerns.
  • There is a recognition of a noticeable decline in the population of native species, which is a cause for concern.
  • The author strongly advocates for active resistance against the possibility of ecological collapse.
  • Engaging in creative exercises, such as the poem challenge, is presented as both enjoyable and a means to confront difficult issues.
  • The essay suggests that individual and collective efforts in creativity and environmental advocacy are essential in working towards a better future.

75 words

Maintaining Hope

It’s a challenge!

End of the rainy season, Costa Rica, photo by author

In my vegetable garden a delicate butterfly lingers on my borage bush, competing with honeybees

for precious nectar — a pleasant exception to the “sixth extinction” theory that postulates our planet is dying.

There has been a visible reduction in numbers of many native species, especially barn swallows who swarm our summer pond.

We must reject this awful possibility and insist on maintaining hope and working toward a global solution to climate change and carbon pollution.

Author’s note—and a challenge!

A poet friend sent a challenge to our workshop group last week to write a poem using the following ten words, also highlighted in bold in the poem above: pleasant, linger, visible, butterfly, reduction, awful, exception, delicate, reject, insist.

It’s difficult enough to write a poem with someone else’s random words, but I upped the dare by insisting we write a 75-word story-poem incorporating all these words!

Try it! It’s loads of fun, and it is NOT easy.

Photo and caption by author

And more from our writers at The Open Kimono:

Shadowgnosis

75 Word Poem
Poetry On Medium
Challenge
Climate Change
Sixth Extinction
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