Mother Earth Trumps Man : Poetry
by The Avocet
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578190478/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_tvvpFbGX40XQ1

From the author…

As a little boy I would spend countless hours in the five-acre woods behind our home. I would spend all day until it got dark in those woods, finding all kinds of extraordinary things and creatures.  My mother taught me to not waste anything.  I’ve been recycling since I was a child.  She taught me that my goal for each day should be to leave as small a footprint on our planet as possible.  My father took us to all the National Parks when we were kids, so my love of being outdoors has been with me all my life.

So, in 2013, when I became Editor/Publisher of The Avocet and The Weekly Avocet, I started writing only Nature Poetry and I started working directly with over 200 nature-loving poets.  From reading their Nature poetry, their concerns, and my own growing awareness of the damage we are endlessly doing to our planet, I started writing Saving Mother Earth Challenge poems. Armed with these poems and my life-long love of Mother Earth, I got the idea to write this collection of poetry.

When I started putting the book together, I had 2 core beliefs for writing the book.

Climate change is the existential threat to our future, our children’s future and to all future generations that follow us.  I truly believe in Irish President Michael Higgins’ statement:

“We are the first generation to truly comprehend the reality of what we’re doing to the natural world, and we may be the last with the chance to avert much of the damage. With this knowledge comes an extraordinary burden of responsibility that we all share.”*

The question we must ask:

Will we have the will power to take on this burden of responsibility to do something now or will we just continue to do nothing, will we just continue to be lazy, incorrigible kids?  The scientists, the factfinders, tell us we have 10 years to right this wrong, ten years…

As a poet, I believe, the purpose of poetry is to provoke thought.  A good poem can take less than a minute to read but can last a lifetime in the reader’s imagination.  I have four poems in my life that have changed my way of thinking after reading them – Richard Cory, The Road not taken, Do not go gently into that good night, and First they came for.  And they all take less than a minute to read.

This collection of poetry is a love story, a love story in so many ways.  It is a collection of poetry that reads like a novel, with each poem a chapter in a man’s life-long-love-affair with Mother Earth.

But it is important to know:  Mother Earth trumps man is not a book about my life.

Granted, many of these poems I have personally experienced in Nature, but I stepped out of my shoes and into the shoes of the character I created – he is a true outdoorsman, a naturalist**, and a poet.  I created all his memories, ideas and thoughts to tell of my love and concerns for Mother Earth through his poetry.

The early poems are memories of a young boy learning to love being out and about in Nature, that love continues to grow into manhood.  He writes of his love of all kinds of trees and all the creatures that roam the wide side of our world.

This book is a love story of a man meeting the woman of his dreams, who shares his love of the outdoors, then, having to set her free, only to have her fly back into his life, so they can again explore their love out in Nature.

This book is a story of parents raising a daughter to love the great outdoors. This book is about a family’s love of each other and of Mother Earth.

This book is a story of lovers growing old together, still enjoying their love of Nature together.

And, this book is a story, told through poems, of a man’s life-long love of Mother Earth and the fears and anger that grow inside of him for what is being done to our precious, blue planet in the name of greed.  It is hard to watch something you love being destroyed!

*Speaking at the National Biodiversity Conference in Dublin, Irish President Michael Higgins called on the world to do more to tackle the “extinction crisis.”

“Over the past half century, humanity has witnessed the destruction of 60% of mammal, bird, fish and reptile populations around the world. We are the first generation to truly comprehend the reality of what we’re doing to the natural world, and we may be the last with the chance to avert much of the damage. With this knowledge comes an extraordinary burden of responsibility that we all share.”

**In philosophy, naturalism is the “idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world.” Adherents of naturalism (i.e., naturalists) assert that natural laws are the rules that govern the structure and behavior of the natural universe, that the changing universe at every stage is a product of these laws.

Enjoy the journey…

Charles Portolano                              7/31/2020

​Please share with all those you know who love Nature, who love our Mother Earth, thank you.