As The World Turns

Eileen F Hugo

Edging our shores
out of sight of the bathers.

Eight million metric tons
of plastic and marine waste
form a river floating in the sea.

Greenhouse gases float into the atmosphere
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide
fossil fuel, human and volcanic aerosols.

Global fact
reduced to hot air.

The Science

This poem answers a challenge to address global trash and air quality during a poetry workshop at Farnsworth Gallery in Rockland, Maine, USA, in 2020. In response to several articles about the significant amount of plastic waste released into the sea via rivers in Asia and Africa, the poem is a response to the failure to adequately address environmental and pollution crises. Dutch scientists are among those making advances to address such failures. One new invention is a large floating net which traps plastics as they travel down river. Additionally, it has been found that a ‘wall of bubbles’ can be used to intercept waste in rivers and canals without blocking the passage of boats and marine wildlife. Tests of a prototype in the IJssel river in the Netherlands found that the bubbles stop an average of 86% of waste.

The Poet

Eileen is a poet who is retired and doing all the things she loves. Her book Not Too Far was published in April 2015. She belongs to two workshops where an excellent collaboration exists. She also served time as the Poetry Editor at The Houston Literary Review. She is delighted to say that although she gets more rejections than acceptances, various journals and anthologies have published her poems. She recently received an honourable mention at the Austin Poetry Festival for her poem ‘Aunties with the Scarves Around Their Heads’.

Next poem: Beauty by Lana Norris