Challenge 1

Consumerism and The Great White Sale

David Buckland ‘The Great White Sale’

“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? […] This we know, the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.”

Chief Seattle, from his speech ‘Selling Our Land’ 1854
(in Earth Shattering Ecopoems, Neil Astley, Ed, Bloodaxe 2007)

The theme for this first week is consumerism. With Christmas just behind us, we are now in the middle of the January sales. Thousands of people queued through the night in the hope of bagging a bargain. But what is the true cost of our disposable society, where last year’s must have buy is cast aside for this year’s latest gadget?

Burning fossil fuels is heating up the planet at an unprecedented rate. The Arctic sea ice helps regulate the earth’s temperature. In 2012 more ice melted than ever before, causing a knock on effect on the environment around the world, from rising sea levels to freak weather conditions. Climate change could kill more than one third of the world’s plant and animal species by 2050. The people and wildlife in the Arctic region are at the sharp end.

Click here to see a video on the SWITCH website about how this will affect the local Inuit community.

Winner of the challenge is Jamie Uy with her poem No Return Policy.

Runners up were poems by Sylvia Villa and Alex Greenberg.

Enough is enough by Sylvia Villa

Never enough   time, money, room
Never enough   water, aid, food
Never enough   clothes, shoes, booze
Never enough   protection, forestation
Never enough   cars, houses, holidays
Never enough   education, medication, vaccination
Never enough   call-time, me-time, free-time
Never enough   giving, thriving, living
Never enough   bargains, offers, sales
Never enough   action, care, awareness
Never enough   shops, restaurants, night spots
Never enough   shelter, help, compassion

When is enough ever enough?

Presentation: Life by Alex Greenberg

This could have all been an exposition for our visit–
The snow, groomed flawlessly at the river’s seam,
skin all white & unconscious. Everything with black eyes,

Piercing, broken ice chained over the floor of the white
Rooms. Just yesterday, the deer were sprawled out like
artifacts on rugs. Just yesterday, we were all shoveling

in the bright, black dirt for meat to feed our nation. The
Growl of watch guards grappling in a dark & primitive sky.
Imagine all of death’s dumb weight just pressing down on

you, victim of gravity. Imagine the turn of earth’s heavy stomach
at the sight of all that blood. Sight of our blood. Shed over
a canvas in the cosmic basement of time. And then what will

become of those restored bodies sitting in their glass boxes,
teetering forward like cheap dolls, each one silent & obedient
in the case their mother decides to send for them.

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

Challenge 4