A Call From Guernsey Airport

This happened when I traveled from Guernsey to Newcastle last month. Unfortunately the lady concerned and I shared 2 flights and she was just as vocal on-board.

A Call From Guernsey Airport

Suddenly a voice started speaking;
"Hi, It's Janet, I'm going to be late."
it wasn't muted, It wasn't muted at all,
it was one of those full blast old people calls.
A voice born in the days of operators
every monotonous word at full blast
as if the smart phone and not the speaker was deaf.
Expressions on faces 20 meters away
ranged from irritation to simple smiles
as the woman with the latest smart phone
cut across the hubbub of the busy terminal
by shouting at her friend in Newcastle.

John Carré Buchanan
24 August 2018

Plastic

Each year we produce nearly 300 million tons of plastic, half of which is for single use. It is estimated that more than 8 million tons of this is dumped into our oceans. The damage to marine ecosystems is devastating.

I find it incredible that despite knowing about the damage we are doing to both to the planet and our own food chains and ultimately our health we continue to pollute.

I have embedded Chris Jordan’s powerful video below; it shows the effects of our actions on Midway, an Island 2000 miles from the nearest continent. I urge you to take the time to watch it and I hope that this post makes you think about the products you use, you might not even know that your shower gel, toothpaste and makeup contain plastic microbeads.

Plastic

Polly bag, plastic tag,
Bic lighter, Huggies diaper,
flip flop, bottle top,
Lego block, zip lock,
fishing line, bailing twine,
piece of rope, Stethoscope,
six pack, plastic cap,
coffee sack, bubble wrap,
tape cassette, gill net,
Kinder egg, clothes peg,
plastic spork, builder's caulk,
cigarette butt, cat gut,
Styrofoam, garden gnome,
orange buoy, sex toy,
soda bottle, hose nozzle,
used syringe, broken hinge,
pregnancy test, high viz vest,
plastic duck, hockey puck,
doorbell , shower gel,
facial scrub, washtub,
zip tie, dolls eye,
makeup, plastic cup,
nurdles, girdles,
tooth paste.
All of this is plastic waste.

The oceans churn to break it down
but plastic’s made to last.
Chemicals leach and particles reach;
the turtle, starved or made infertile,
the albatross chick slowly fed to death,
fish poisoned and mutated,
Cetacea and seals, who drown slowly in nets.
And mankind? well we do the human thing;
dump eight million tonnes of plastic into their oceans each year.

John Carré Buchanan
13 October 2017

If you click on the link below you can listen to me read this poem.

MIDWAY a Message from the Gyre : a short film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

This poem is linked to Poets United.

Have A Care

Humankind is obsessed with its own worth, we acknowledge that we are damaging the environment, we pretend that we care, yet we are naïve enough to believe that replacing ancient rain forests with palm oil trees is an acceptable trade.

This poem aims to highlight the biggest threat to our species, a threat which receives far less media attention than it deserves, for when the true impact of humankind on the environment is realised; the media’s bias towards; religion, politics, nationality and human rights pails into insignificance.

Have A Care

I don't care if you’re a Muslim
I don't care if you’re a Jew
I don't care if you’re Christian
Syrian, or from Crew.
If your L-B-G-T
they're all fine by me,
because I believe
we're all humanity.

From the tycoon in her ivory tower
to the orphan on the street.
A rebel fighting government
the girl I've yet to meet.
The Inuit in the high north,
the Bajau on the sea,
we all share the basic right
to live a life that's free.

It’s a right we share with nature
with beasts, the birds and bees,
the creatures of the ocean
and yes; the plants and trees.
From tiny little microbes
to the might of the great blue whale,
the spider hanging in its web
and the humble garden snail

Yes, we share that basic right,
to live a life that's free
but we humans also have;
a responsibility;
to mind the world we live in,
to mind the air we share,
to keep the oceans pure and clear,
and above all show we care.

so; I don't care if you’re a Muslim
I don't care if you’re a Jew
I don't care if you’re Christian
Syrian or from Crew.
If your L-B-G-T
that's ok with me
but if you insist on damaging
this world that all life shares
we're going to have a problem
because I'm someone who cares.

John Carré Buchanan
12 March 2016

If you click on the link below you can listen to me read this poem.



This poem is linked to Poets United.

Beaches

Image Source:

I wrote this for an open mic with the theme; 'The Beach'. I believe it is self explanatory.

Beaches

Suddenly the trees parted
the road just stopped.
Lying there in front of me
a pristine curve of golden sand,
turquoise water fringed with lace,
lapping gently under graceful arches
topped with palm fronds.
Paradise.
But look closer.
Look amidst the tide line.
Amidst the Raffia, drift wood, coconuts, shells,
fishing net, buoys, lighters, syringes,
a lone, tar covered, flip flop.
Look closer.
Small clusters of bone and feathers
grouped around piles of plastic.
The rotting carcass of a hawksbill turtle
head and fins entangled in faded blue nylon.
Look closer still.
Tiny coloured grains pollute the sand
kill tiny creatures
PCB's, dioxins, benzine,
leach into the sand, the water
poison micro organisms
which underpin the food chain.
Poison plankton, poison fry, poison tuna,
poison man;
and the TV ad asks us to fund cancer research.
How perverse.

John Carré Buchanan
19 July 2014