Earth. Fire. Wind. Water. Heart.
For me, Gaia will always be Whoopi Goldberg: the voice I grew up with every Saturday morning urging me to plant trees. To not litter. Recycle more. Referring to Europe as “The Soviet Union”. For me, Gaia will always be a long-haired woman of vague-ethnicity living on Hope Island. Watching over us. Ever-present.
I remember the days when I made rings out of paper — like origami, but less sophisticated — and ran around the house shouting “Earth. Fire. Wind…”
Thinking about it now, it’s actually kinda sad. The cartoon talked down to kids and might have even been slightly racist; at best, it portrayed highly stereotypical characters. I’m sure its heart was in the right place.
The problems we had with pollution and deforestation twenty years ago are still very much alive today, if not more so. It’s like no one heeded Gaia’s warnings, on the contrary, we became the cartoon’s super villains. We laughed and kept on producing shit.
The time has come for us to be Planeteers once again — with or without Gaia’s rings. Gaia isn’t just connected to the Earth, you see, she is Earth! For her to keep on living and providing and watching over us, we gotta love and take care of her.
We gotta be gentle.
So this coming Poets Passport, we celebrate Gaia. We celebrate mothers. We celebrate women. But more than anything, we celebrate love.
COME JOIN US!
By our powers combined — and with a bit of luck — maybe we’ll summon change.
Captain planet, he’s a hero,
Gonna take pollution down to zero…
At the very least, let’s all have a good time and fill the air with love; sometimes, that’s all one can ask for.
Most of the time, it’s enough.
In case you ever wondered how it all started…
… and they’re gonna ask you,
“Where were you when the world ended?”
and you better have a damn good answer!
Me, I’ll be at poetry; the type of poetry that steals your thoughts and travels back in time before BC…
“Who am I?”
Louis’ poem at Extraterrestrials was rad. It’s all about the timing. The little details. Surprises. Rumor has it that there’s a Playlist on Youtube with other poems from this very session.
The saddest part about Extraterrestrials was saying goodbye to Maral.
The Extraterrestrials land tomorrow, so today we feature the first teaser trailer for our upcoming mini-documentary, Poets Passport: An Oral History.
