Two Sonnets on Climate Change

Shipping Forecast

The general synopsis for: now, UTC
I issued gale warnings: sea area Wight
But you were too busy to listen to me
So now:  gales from Iceland to the German Bight

We’ll see how you like it when I really try
The Wind is southwesterly; gale force severe
The sea’s in a sea state — the waves: very high
The weather:  cyclonic.  Depression is near

Visibility will rather quickly be poor
An imminent hurricane in Bay of Biscay
The pressure is falling from Dover to Forth
Phenomenal wave heights are coming your way

Sea area Thames and Humber and Tyne
Gale force, very rough and a hurricane: fine                                           Feb 2014

 

Suffering Sea Changes

History is not just one thing, then another
Climate is more than just shipping forecasts
Climate is language which we can decipher
From murmuring stream to hurricane blasts

Climate is language — and weather is speech
the wind has a message; the water is spouting
The facts are placing themselves in our reach
Climate is language: the weather is shouting

There’s water knee deep in my kitchen today
and they ask me — they ask me — “do you believe?”
The rain raineth down – I may need to pray
I’m beyond believing — I see what I see

And I do not need a weatherman to know
which way the wind blows                                                            March 2014