And These Are the Islands

Subscribe to this site on Substack

Subscribe to this site on YouTube

Subscribe to this site on Medium

Follow this site on Facebook

Follow this site on Instagram

Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.

Watch me read
the poem as
a YouTube video.

Audio and Video Music:
A Revelation.
By Jeremy Blake.
Music free to use
at YouTube.

Alpha List

Earth Day
Poems

Poems About
the Environment

Political
Poems

Villanelles

About This
Site

Poems for
Free

Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon

And these are the islands, tiny green drops
On the broad bright blue canvas of tropical seas.
And these are the great white wheels spinning like tops, Swallowing mountains as the sea swallows rocks,
Swallowing churches and children and trees,
Swallowing islands like tiny green drops With their warehouses, schoolhouses, dollhouses, shops,
With their dreams and intentions and sweet fantasies,
All smashed by the great white wheels spinning like tops That gorge on the profits of energy stocks
And the fumes of our lust for convenience and ease,
Heedless of islands like tiny green drops And the people who live on them tending their crops
Or working in offices, homes, factories,
Devoured by monsters spinning like tops In a line of disasters no tragedy stops
Despite the raw poignance of powerless pleas …
And these are the islands, tiny green drops.
And these are the great white wheels spinning like tops.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.

Audio and Video Music: A Revelation.
By Jeremy Blake. Music free to use at YouTube.

[about this site] [poems for free] [poem of the week]
[site policy] [about me] [links]