Ben Okri calls for humanity to rise to the occasion as Earth faces its greatest crisis

Earth Cries

Words for the day.
Denial. Justice. Right
To protest. And Earth cries.
Oh, when will we awaken?
The Gulf Stream is dying.
Day’s end is approaching.
Climate migrants. Oil spills.
Global boiling. Carbon
Emissions. Net zero.
A fossil fuel nightmare.
The wandering rage of the world,
Trying to find a home.

Who will give voice
To this crisis hanging over us
That can open the hearts
And minds of the people?
Disasters are coming. No amount
Of hiding can conceal it.
The young crave truth.
Only truth will save us.

We must awaken before night descends.
Shadows rush towards us.
Earth is shaking. Insects are perishing.
Flowers are mourning. When will truth
Arrive? When will we have the courage
To give this hour in history its true name?
How many of us must perish before
The governments prioritize this climate crisis?
We are the not-so-slow suicide of the world.
We are the not-so-fast saviors of the world.
Oh, what I would give
To have one person wake up to the truth
Of our world for every microsecond that they
Poison the air, the sea, and the forests.

If we rise up as one in peace and truth
And beauty, will they listen? Must
We scream to be heard? Must the Earth
Bleed to be nurtured? Has the world
Not bled enough? How do you capture
The attention of the world
Without instilling fear? And to lead with
Courage? We need a new language
That howls and caresses at the same time,
A new language that frightens and
Simultaneously gives hope, that
Tells the truth and transcends the truth
In the same breath. For the human being
Is a fragile vessel that cannot handle the light
Yet cannot face the darkness.
Must we become a new species?
Must the human being be remade
To confront the harsh truths of the times?

There is no time for this renewal.
We must become new right now.
Time will not wait for us amidst all the
Evils and poisons we have unleashed
Into the belly and soul of nature.
Time will not wait for us to ponder
What can be done
After lengthy deliberation.
Because of what we humans
Have done, we must expedite
Our own transformation now,
In the face of the crisis we
Have inflicted upon ourselves.

No gods will save us from this.
We are the gods who must take action.
We are the gods who must rise
To the greatest crisis in the history
Of human consciousness as we know it.
We are the gods who must reverse this
Story. I’m not certain if the bees,
Or the trees, or the fishes, or the air,
Or the future generations truly care
About how we achieve it. All they will
Care about is that somehow, with
Intelligence, passion, sacrifice,
Our voices, votes, gifts,
Our rage, love, wounds,
Our disabilities, courage,
Certainties, doubts, fears,
Loneliness, solidarity, style
Or lack thereof, clumsiness,
Youth, age, deaths, and births,
We get it done, we reverse the climate
Disaster lurking in the wings of this sixth act
Of the human comedy or tragedy.
All they will care about is that
We create a now, a past, a dream,
A hope, a life, a future once again
For the species of this magical Earth.
That is our calling.
That is our destiny in these times.

• Ben Okri is a Booker prize-winning author and poet. His book Tiger Work, a collection of stories, essays, and poems about the climate crisis, is published by Head of Zeus

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