A Poet's Guide to Celebrating Earth Day

Plant a tree.
See the slow, beautiful and necessary changes your action has on the planet, the environment and the society. Good for you. Good for all of us.

Write a poem about planting a tree.
And the work of your two hands may plant a hundred trees. An hour. For generations to come.

Poets inspire. They inspire other poets to write more poems. They inspire people to act out the dreams described within the poem. Dreams that might otherwise be long deferred. Dreams that can change the planet.

Now!

And later.
Because poems last.

How to celebrate Earth Day, my poets?

1) Write a poem.

2) Look for inspiration.

• Take a walk. Write what you see.
• Take a closer look. At a flower, a tree, a blade of grass. Or at the place that a flower, tree or blade of grass ought to be but isn't. Write what you see. Write what you don't see.

3) Go out of your way.

• Visit a nursery. Sit quietly. Transcribe overheard conversations. Write what you see and feel. What you hear and smell.

4) Do something inspiring.

• Plant a tree. Write about it.
• Watch someone else plant a tree. Write about it.
• Read about tree planting, forestry projects, tree-sitting, erosion, enviromental tragedies and triumphs. Write a poem as a conversation with one of the people involved. Write a poetic conversation with one of the heroes, villians or victims. Write a conversation poem with a tree, flower, blade of grass. Or with the space where one should be.
• Share your poem.
• Share it without paper. Blog it. Post it to associatedcontent.com or to gotpoetry.com. Submit it to a web literary journal. E-mail it to friends. Twitter it -one fluttering line at a time.
• Buy recycled paper. Recycle paper yourself. Make your own paper and calligraphy your poem onto it as a gift. Don't like how it turns out? Recycle the paper and make more.

5) Inspire yourself and others to action.

Every word is one that can save the world. Speak it. Write it. Share it.

Share it here with me. Post your AC link in a comment to this article so other poets and poetry lovers can read it and be inspired by you.