Welcome to Week 10 of my Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge.  Corvids are birds belonging to the Corvidae family, encompassing ravens, crows, magpies, jays and nutcrackers.  So peruse your corvid photo, poetry, music and story archives and join the challenge.

You can participate in the Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge by creating a pingback to this post (my pingback approval settings are set up for manual approval, so it may take a little while for your pingback to appear) and/or by leaving a hyperlink to your submission in the comments.   Tag your post Corvid-2020 or C20WC.  I really do hope you will join in.

My turn now.

Crow Me A River

Shall we stay inside day and night?
Lick our wounds, croak our fright
Surrender to so-called climate wars
Check online for daily bread
Sip our wine of sweat and dread
Beneath shroud of smoke, a ghostly pall
Summer’s bane, summer’s fall.

Where to go when there is no where?
How to thrive when there is nothing?
What to say that vindicates a right?

Fires do not burn on concrete or dirt
Fires bloom on fossil fuel, on hurt.  Man bleeds
On parched wasteland, on death of innocents
On accounting errors, false carbon credits.
Crocodile tears?  Oh, please.
Crow me a river.

The photo below was taken in the midst of the 2019/2020 Australian bushfire crisis as smoke shrouded Canberra, the national capital of Australia.

raven on a walk

The (Australian) Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements commenced public hearings on 25 May 2020.   The Commission has heard that 445 people probably died as a result of the toxic smoke from the 2019/2020 Australian bushfires.

I would like to thank those who contributed to last week’s challenge.  There were only two contributions, but they were beauties.  Check them out.

https://secretartexpedition.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/corvid-2020-weekly-challenge-9/

https://analindenblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/22/its-still-spring-even-at-home-12/

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

More Information
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/australias-summer-bushfire-smoke-killed-445-and-put-thousands-in-hospital-inquiry-hears
https://naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au/

 

49 thoughts on “Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #10”

  1. Oooh, Tracy, this poem will stay with me for quite a while. It’s so sad to see what the cruel bushfires did to nature and wildlife.
    Love the photo of the bird. I used to have a raven in the neighbourhood when I lived in Germany. It was absolutely magic, I would call out for him and he’d come to pick his breakfast from my kitchen window, sometimes he picked an egg, bread, ham and when I went for a run in the woods he would accompany me for the first part.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you again. In Australia, we have not yet begun to recover from the summer bushfires which destroyed many precious natural habitats and also decimated many regional economies. And now ….
      I enjoy hearing everyone’s raven stories and have learnt a lot from them. How lucky you were to have such a delightful companion in your raven resident.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, he was joy. But one day our neighbour called on us, quite frustrated; “Mungo”, the raven, obviously pinched the dry bread that I collected for the horses and dropped it in the birdbath across the road to soften it… 😉

        Liked by 1 person

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  6. That’s such a haunting and beautiful photo, Tracy! As is your poem. It’s shocking how people so readily start to forget about our planet’s future and well-being since this virus hit it – no one talks about climate change anymore it seems, and that awful Bolsonaro keeps burning down the rain forests in Brasilia and no one stops him! 😢 I haven’t forgotten about the bushfires in Australia and always wonder how or if the animal population will recover from it.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Sarah. I do wish we could move toward net zero emissions faster here. Our energy minister won’t even confirm that as our target. It is cruelly disappointing given what we’ve all been through and what we will continue to go through now and into the future. My son, the newly qualified environmental scientist, said he had read somewhere for his studies that much of the farm land that abutted the Amazon was blessed with good rains because of the rainforests. As more rainforest is cut down, farms that are furthest from the rainforest will see diminishing agricultural productivity as rainfall declines. Since he has been studying hard I haven’t nagged him for the research, so don’t quote me on that.
      There has been little information outside of the science community about the extent of species decline since the fires. There have been reports of forests continuing to be cleared post-bushfires due to prior agreements. Crazy stuff and very disheartening.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. What with the crisis now I’m afraid protecting the planet and the environment isn’t high on politicians’ minds these days, not anywhere. Quite the opposite – they want us to support the car industry by buying new cars!! What the heck?!
        It must be so frustrating for your son to know about these things and witness how nothing is done against it, even though it would be in their own good will. I mean, that’s what they want, right? Increase their agriculture. How bitterly ironic that they won’t even achieve that and are still scarifying all the planet’s hope and oxygen… 😦
        I can only imagine how many species suffered from the bushfires, and how irreversible their lost is.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I agree that the environment doesn’t seem to be a big priority now. However, the planet has its own timetable and it will force us to get on board (sorry for more transport analogies), probably sooner than the present generation would like.

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  9. Fabulous poem. You’ve created a tone that should make us all stop and take stock. Photo is a wonderful match. Sorry I missed last week, just couldn’t pull it all off!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you, Heather. The other big pressing problems do not go away despite this virus disaster. I hear Alberta is using it to get a pipeline built though.
      Completely understandable that you can’t contribute every week. Life gets busy and the birds have other plans too. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Oh, don’t get me started on the AB government…of course it is an ideal time to push ahead with their pipelines, people can’t have large gatherings to protest. They’ve also closed 20 provincial parks and are looking to privatize the operations of others because parks aren’t money makers..which isn’t the intention of provincial parks…then there is health and education cuts…the list goes on…

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Wow, Tracy–that photo and that poem. Well done. I will be returning to those lines; they are certainly resonant and the voice is strong. “Oh, please.” Yes–sock it to ’em. Keep writing. Love it!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Rebecca. I almost didn’t include that line, but I thought it wouldn’t be true to my voice if I left it out. There is always a fine line between censoring oneself because you think it might upset people, and omitting because it detracts from the message. I’m trying to learn the difference. Thanks for your encouraging comment.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Martha. I put a filter over that photo because the colour of the photo was so awful due to the dirty air and smoke. It still had something about it though.
      I have plenty of answers. Not sure how practical they are though. 🙂 I should ask the crow/raven.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Su. The future does look pretty grim, especially when you consider how straight forward it should have been to reach some sort of global consensus on actions necessary to contain this virus.
      I’m afraid I can’t get your motto stuck in my mind. I think there are too many syllables when the thoughts are swirling. Maybe “breathe” might be easier to remember. Just a thought.

      Like

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  15. Tracy, you have been sharing such wonderful poetry! Please do write poems more often. That last line!!!
    And that pic is amazing.
    I will write something this week for the challenge. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Great post Tracy. The crow stood, in what I assume are ashes, signals resilience. Where are the crow tracks? Zero emissions and sustainable energy are an aspirational 2050 goal in Canada but as a coal and oil producer getting off dirty energy will be a struggle. Canada’s rivers have the potential to generate electricity or what we call ‘hydro.’ Hydro is mostly clean but developing the infrastructure and flooding large areas to create reservoirs and flood valleys Is often unpopular.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. No ashes in the photo, Sid. The beige colour is due to the filter I used. The original colours were a dirty yellow due to smoke and dust. The raven is walking on filthy asphalt. It was a very hot day so I bet that asphalt was burning hot.
      Everyone is excited about hydro here too or more specifically pumped hydro using old mine reservoirs. It is claimed that pumping water uphill could be done with solar power, and then water released at night. It is an interesting idea, and I hope a carbon neutral one. We will see. One recently announced (non-mining) initiative, Snowy Hydro 2.0 is particularly contentious. It is located in a National Park and the distance between the reservoirs is very far, so more power will be needed to pump the water. I am sure our coal and gas producers will be lobbying against pumped hydro if coal markets decline as a result, except of course if there is something in it for them. https://www.oilandgastoday.com.au/chevron-woodside-join-hydrogen-council/
      I am sure flooding valleys and building reservoirs will be very unpopular. But wait, AB has a solution for you. I shouldn’t be so cynical.

      Like

  17. I had not heard of Australian’s hydro plan It is very interesting. Several years ago Alberta was selling crude oil for $100 dollars a barrel and life was good and the money flowed. Since that time many years ago And until very recently the price barrel has Continued to fluctuate widely. A few months ago on the spot markets oil was briefly under $5.00 per barrel. Below the cost of production. Alberts needs to diversify its economy and get out of the boom and bust cycle it is in. Alberts produces many agricultural products but is selling them into very competitive markets. Alberta is gripped with the myth of free enterprise and the invisible hand guiding the market. This free enterprise market has been very cruel to Alberts. I’ve heard that a definition of futility is, “repeating the same mistake and expecting different results.” Alberts must further diversify its economy. The path forward is the “green economy” but many “green economy” resistorS have gone to the barricades.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The viability of hydro projects using old mines is still being investigated. There are many issues to be considered, eg. not releasing toxic chemicals from past operations into waterways.
      Those that are so keen on the invisible hand guiding hand of the market ought to understand very well that the market has already moved on.

      Like

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