a poem for louisiana as it is again unwillingly transformed

[zeraphimpoetry]

i wish that love
was enough to put you back together.
sew your wayward canals + burnt bridges
patch the seawater spots in your vast disintegrating curtains of marshland + swamp

i have felt the hum of your thousand life forms
moving, chirping, as it all blends to a single oma warm and living silent sound

Comments

[anonymous]

I was wondering how you've been handling and processing all this. I know you did a lot of hard work down here. It is all so devastating. I'll be doing some work with the Audubon Society in June. But I'd like to do more. Let me know if you have any recommendations for organizations to help restore the wetlands. I have nothing but time this summer... I'd rather be elsewhere, enjoying life, but now it's our duty to go down into the black, poisoned marshes and coast to remedy the things we have done to it.
Patrick LeGette

[zeraphimpoetry]

I'm utterly devastated, Patrick. I believe lists are forming for those who want to help with oil cleanup. When it comes to vegetative planting, the normal restoration process, I have worked with Bayou Rebirth and enjoyed working with Colleen Morgan who heads that project, a great deal.They work with Common Ground, which has its own restoration project (as you know) that appears to be going well. I have no idea what the state of CG is now. When I was there it was a disorganized, traumatic place to be, but one of the easiest to walk right into, with a ton of latitude for guiding your own way. It's possible that by now it's a well-run organization like any other

[anonymous]

Thanks for all this. I'm scheduled for work with the Audubon Society as I said, but that's only for a week in June--to wait on docks and transport oiled birds to clean-up centers. You need training to work with anything directly involving oil clean-up, and they haven't yet provided that for volunteers. However, in the meantime, I'm really looking for some work involving restoration and plants--even if its just a little community green space. I started a substantial food garden with my mom in the country, so that fulfills a great need of mine to work with plants. I had told you I wanted to go north for the summer, but so far I haven't made any plans for that. I need to get more involved and in the know, and now I can start doing that since school is done for the summer.
It'd be great if you got back down here eventually. Of course, if you needed a place to stay, you are always welcome.
_Patrick-sorry I keep doing this as anonymous, I forgot my log-in info.