Optimism, Pessimism— I don’t need them
Maybe call it a sort of Perspective-ism
Optimism, Pessimism— I don’t need them
To reject the supremacy of any Ism
Feels more like, damn— I do really just need to listen
To the cycles of nature tryna tell on em in extreme weather
To the folks who’d been getting hit and harmed the longest
To the voice inside saying “this has BEEN wrong” forever
To the people over time actually trying for a future our damnest
To hear it turned-inside, shit-stuck, -out
Is to know it takes leaving systems of extraction
Out, to join with all the sounds and shout
Against despair, apathy, and doubt— takes real action
To face climate change, I need Whatever-It-Takes-Isms—
None of that pessing and optic misting shit— and those made-up schisms.
— Adam Powers
El Yunque National Forest taken by Rachel Powers
I’m trying to get into more sonnets — so this poem is sorta sonnetlike 🤷 This one is also sonnetlike, but again… not technically a sonnet. For some of my earlier poems on Isms— check out:
an album opener: Climate ChangeIsms
systems of life-giving: VitalIsm
systems of life re-giving: ReVitalIsm