A book of nature inspired poems and essays, dedicated to today’s children and tomorrow’s wild animals. The thoughts expressed in this book reflect both an ardent love of our natural world, and a profound sadness at its modern day demise.

Excerpt

 

Introduction

Where The Redwing Sings is a book of nature inspired poems and essays, written from the heart and soul of a life-long nature, animal, and wilderness lover; and it is dedicated to today’s children of the world. I firmly believe they are the only hope for Earth’s continued survival.

All one has to do is gaze about today to realize that our home planet is in trouble. Modern day life, massive urban sprawl, increasing industrialization, and the world’s exploding human population are wreaking havoc on Earth’s ancient ecosystems, and on her many diversely essential life forms; and far too many adults living today don’t even seem to care.

It has truly become a very destructive, hustle and bustle, profit driven, modern day world; and very sadly, less and less of us are taking even a few moments of our extremely hectic, strife-filled, modern day lives to smell those proverbial roses.

Within just the last 200 years, we have felled over half of Earth’s once vast old growth forests, and we have destroyed over half of her essential, life-sustaining wetlands.

Earth’s oceans, lakes, and streams are now being grossly overfished, and they grow more polluted each and every day with our modern day toxins, industrial and agricultural chemicals, and garbage. And it’s now fairly conclusive that global warming, horrific new storm patterns, and ever increasing world-wide drought and wild fires are only worsening the already dire situation.

Modern day urban sprawl, both industrial and residential, is also rapidly destroying Earth’s remaining wildlife habitats. More and more of these nonhuman creatures have fewer and fewer places to live, and more and more of them are becoming endangered, and even very sadly – far too rapidly becoming extinct.

Earth’s once sacred mountain tops, revered red rock canyons, and life-sustaining wetlands and swamplands are being decimated at an astounding pace today, and our once cherished and protected national parks and wildlife refuges are now being very callously torn apart - piece by piece by piece.

Unless we can somehow curb our seemingly never ending penchant for wide scale destruction, more and more animal species, and more and more of Earth’s ancient indigenous plants, will soon vanish forever.

And there could very well come a day in Earth’s not so distant future, when the only place a modern day child might find a wild animal on this planet is in one of our iron and brick, man-made, zoos.

Very sadly today, far too many adults, and most of the world’s youth, have lost any real interest in the continuing study and protection of Nature. Most of us are truly products of our childhood upbringing and environment, and unless the children of today are once again mentored by nature loving adults, there appears to be very little hope.

Recent studies show that today’s modern day children spend far more time indoors at their computer games and television sets than they ever do outdoors. But, can we even blame them? Most adults living today do the very same thing.

Indoor activities for all age groups living in the world today now far surpass former glorious outdoor pastimes such as hiking, fishing, camping, and boating.

Captivating old ghost stories are now read on a computer screen, instead of being told around a mesmerizing campfire in the deep dark woods. If birds are studied at all today by our children, they are studied via the Internet, instead of through a set of sturdy binoculars in the vast pine forest or on the sandy seashore. There are also far less stargazers these days; less and less inquisitive children request a telescope for Christmas.

We modern day residents seem to have sadly lost far too much interest in the magnificent natural world surrounding us, in its wild creatures, in the heavens above, in the truly vast and mysterious universe, and even in this very ancient and very intriguing thing we call – life.

If many of Earth’s splendid remaining natural wonders are to survive into the next century, we must somehow immediately begin instilling a renewed interest in, and a genuine renewed respect for, and appreciation of, the entire natural world, in our children today.

Or very soon, and very sadly, this once great, green, thriving, vibrantly diverse planet will become an extremely barren and extremely lifeless, completely artificial, modern day world.

I truly believe that all of us must somehow strive to at least re-introduce Nature in all of its wondrous glory to our children and our grandchildren today, before it’s much too late – for them, for us, for the animals of the world, and for our home planet.

I was blessed to have been raised by grandparents, parents, and teachers who diligently taught me the many merits of Nature at a very young age.

And with such an upbringing, I was able to joyously expand my knowledge of our natural world, and its immense worth, with numerous wilderness treks throughout the years, with continued readings of such writers as Thoreau, Muir, Emerson, Twain, and Longfellow, and with an ever expanding appreciation of ancient Native American culture and wisdom.

I still have so very much to learn about nature, and I truly hope that I will continue to appreciate, and to revere, the wondrous natural world that we have all been blessed with, until the very day that I die.

The poems and essays included here hopefully reflect both my ardent love of our natural world and my profound sadness at its mass destruction; and I firmly believe that today’s children are Earth’s only hope for tomorrow.

If even one of the nature inspired poems or essays in this book inspires even one modern day child to once again gaze upon something in our natural world with awe and wonder and respect, this writer will be a most happy one.

“Treat Mother Earth well,

And teach your children well.

Earth was not given to you by your parents,

It was loaned to you by your children.”

An Ancient Native American Proverb

Where The Redwing Sings

“See a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

An eternity, if only, for an hour.”

William Blake

I arise before dawn’s early light

And I journey to a favorite place

Here is where the redwing sings

He brings such a smile to my face

Since my very early childhood days

I’ve been entranced by the wet & wild

It is here, in the yet unblemished places

That I always wish to linger for awhile

Here is life in its very simplest form

Among bird, plant, amphibian, and fish

Here, in the wetland, they revere water

They know it brings life-sustaining bliss

Here, where the redwing blackbird sings

Here, where the lovely wild flowers thrive

Here, where the frog sings his nightly songs

Here, where earth’s waters are vibrantly alive

As I perch here listening to this old wetland breathe

I can envision another lone human here centuries ago

As he too, enjoyed this place where the redwing sings

This place also bringing serenity to his world weary soul

Far too many today in our modern, hustle and bustle, world

Have sadly lost this connection with earth’s life-giving things

In the last 200 years, we have destroyed half of earth’s wetlands

This modern day fact, a deep sadness to my heart and soul brings

Today’s modern children somehow have to reconnect with nature

Or within the next fifty years, our planet’s wetlands will be gone

Please teach your children about the life-giving wonders of nature

Take them to a wetland, let them listen to a redwing’s ancient song

Where The Water Meets The Sky

“I hear lake water lapping,

With low sounds by the shore;

I hear it deep,

Within the heart’s core.”

William Butler Yeats

Serenity for me has always been

Spending time on a wilderness lake

Here, where the water meets the sky

All my worldly troubles, I soon forsake

Here, where the blue water meets the bluest sky

I can silently drift along, in a tranquil state of bliss

Here, I can listen to the lake and to the forest, breathe

Here, in a place that whenever I leave it, I always miss

As I very slowly and joyously cruise all about this paradise

Listening to the lovely blue waters lapping against the shore

For at least a short time, it feels as if our world is still all right

It’s a feeling of harmony and contentment, I shall always adore

Here, I can still leave behind the modern day troubles of mankind

Here, I can still enjoy earth’s natural beauty, so very fresh and raw

Here, I can still envision how the Creator planned for man to live

Here, I can admire His glorious Creation, with reverence and awe

I would be extremely content to spend my remaining earthly days

Cruising along, looking and listening, to the sounds of this lake

Its birds and crickets singing, while a fish breaks the surface

And a loon calls out, in anticipation of tomorrow’s daybreak

No matter where I may be now, on any particular day,

I can somehow hear these very waters, lapping on this shore,

No matter what I may be doing, at any particular moment in time,

I always somehow feel this place, deep within my own heart’s core

Read more about Ed Kostro and his other books HERE.

Copyright 2008 Ed Kostro. All rights reserved. No part of this
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