United Nations Climate Summit Opening Ceremony – A poem to my Daughter

September 24, 2014 by Kathy 25 Comments

On 23 September 2014, I  addressed the Opening Ceremony of the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit. I performed my new poem entitled “Dear Matafele Peinem” written to my daughter. My full statement, along with a live performance of the poem, can be viewed below, followed by the studio version, and the full text of the poem itself:

The clip below is a studio version which was recorded before the actual performance.

 

dear matafele peinam,

 

you are a seven month old sunrise of gummy smiles

you are bald as an egg and bald as the buddha

you are thighs that are thunder and shrieks that are lightning

so excited for bananas, hugs and

our morning walks past the lagoon

 

dear matafele peinam,

 

i want to tell you about that lagoon

that lucid, sleepy lagoon lounging against the sunrise

 

men say that one day

that lagoon will devour you

 

they say it will gnaw at the shoreline

chew at the roots of your breadfruit trees

gulp down rows of your seawalls

and crunch your island’s shattered bones

 

they say you, your daughter

and your granddaughter, too

will wander rootless

with only a passport to call home

 

dear matafele peinam,

 

don’t cry

 

mommy promises you

 

no one

will come and devour you

 

no greedy whale of a company sharking through political seas

no backwater bullying of businesses with broken morals

no blindfolded bureaucracies gonna push

this mother ocean over

the edge

 

no one’s drowning, baby

no one’s moving

no one’s losing

their homeland

no one’s gonna become

a climate change refugee

 

or should i say

no one else

 

to the carteret islanders of papua new guinea

and to the taro islanders of the solomon islands

i take this moment

to apologize to you

we are drawing the line here

 

because baby we are going to fight

your mommy daddy

bubu jimma your country and president too

we will all fight

 

and even though there are those

hidden behind platinum titles

who like to pretend

that we don’t exist

that the marshall islands

tuvalu

kiribati

maldives

and typhoon haiyan in the philippines

and floods of pakistan, algeria, colombia

and all the hurricanes, earthquakes, and tidalwaves

didn’t exist

 

still

there are those

who see us

 

hands reaching out

fists raising up

banners unfurling

megaphones booming

and we are

canoes blocking coal ships

we are

the radiance of solar villages

we are

the rich clean soil of the farmer’s past

we are

petitions blooming from teenage fingertips

we are

families biking, recycling, reusing,

engineers dreaming, designing, building,

artists painting, dancing, writing

and we are spreading the word

 

and there are thousands out on the street

marching with signs

hand in hand

chanting for change NOW

 

and they’re marching for you, baby

they’re marching for us

 

because we deserve to do more than just

survive

we deserve

to thrive

 

dear matafele peinam,

 

you are eyes heavy

with drowsy weight

so just close those eyes, baby

and sleep in peace

 

because we won’t let you down

 

you’ll see