When the whole world is deaf
by greed and by choice,
how do you change things
with only your voice?
It’s hard to be noticed,
harder to be heard
but she stood up and spoke,
could not be deterred.
What made them listen?
What cut through their lies?
Not the pollution
or the fast melting ice,
not the experts or science,
not hunger or flood,
not the extinctions
our hands red with blood,
it was her steady gaze,
on our planet, alight,
her desperate calm,
her demand, make it right,
it’s what we’ll recall
of her fight for our youth,
her luminous words
her courage, her truth.
_______________________
Liz lives in the south west of England and visits schools accompanied by her assistance dog Lola. Liz is a poet, children’s poet and film-maker. She has worked extensively with National Poetry Day and her series of film poems for NPD 2015 are available on her YouTube channel. Her books include Animal Magic and Reaching the Stars, Poems about Extraordinary Women and Girls (written with Jan Dean and Michaela Morgan). The Same Inside and Apes to Zebras, an A-Z of Shape Poems will be published early next year.