At my post office, endangered too,
I avoid the self-service kiosks, wait in line
for a human. A clerk waves me over
with her smile, asks where I've been.
She tells me about a cruise she's taken
with her mother, describes the buffets,
The turquoise of the ship's pool.
Now I'm smiling too. What's your name?
I've been meaning to ask for ages.
Grace, she says, I thought you knew.
SOURCE: HERE: Poems for the Planet, Edited by Elizabeth J Coleman with Foreword by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Copper Canyon Press, Washington, USA, 2019.
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Elizabeth Coleman writes: "I was inspired to create and edit HERE: Poems for the Planet with the dream of galvanizing readers to address the environmental crisis head on, with enthusiasm and without the paralyzing fear that leads to indifference and inaction. My goal was to encourage a sense of urgency and hopegoal, and to reach those already engaged, and those sitting on the sidelines, in a new way. In HERE, more than 125 living poets from all over the world, explore our planet's beauty and plight. With a foreword from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and an activist guide written by the Union of Concerned Scientists, HERE summons our best selves to be catalysts for change."