Ethics, Values, & Sustainability
Environmental Strategy & Sustainability
Systems Thinking & Sustainable Businesses
Last Updated 05/30/2006
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GROUP 2
If I could be anything, I'd be a purple fingernail
A battle scar from a run-in with a car door
Throbbing with feeling, this rebellious fingernail threatens to secede.
Amelia George
My favorite time of day
is just at dark
When all thoughts of what must get done
Stop
And small pools of light
Come alive On Tired faces
Everywhere The Breeze sneaks around
and Simply becomes all that matters.
Anna Hillary
I’m cold, but not yet frozen.
Each step is a challenge.
I shiver as my feet keep moving.
My breath makes me invisible for seconds.
The wind makes me squint my eyes
until my world is nothing but cloudy traces of colors.
And yet
I see you at the corner.
I want to disappear in a cloud of my own breath,
but I can’t.
You give me this summery smile
And that autumny hug.
They feel like a punch in winter.
I try to count snowflakes while you’re talking to me.
You ask if I’m cold.
As I shake my head,
tears
fall like ripe apples
hidden by my foliage colored hair.
You ask if I’m cold.
I’m cold, but not yet frozen
I think
and want to wait with my reply.
Nicole Hirschfelder
The broad backed hippopotamus
lays half emerged
in confusion and clarity
as the gum wrapper
rests in the corner
half used.
Dustin Green
WHAT MATTERS
Looking out into the distance
I become incredibly aware
That someday she’ll be all grown up
And I’ll look out and stare
Thinking how time slipped away
These moments leave too fast
Laughing, playing and holding her tight
These moments have to last
For memories of her smile
And hearing “daddy,… I love you”
Because in the end all that will matter
Is Shaylee I love you too
Brian Bengry
“Her face toward the sky”
Her face toward the sky,
eyes closed,
head tilted slightly,
breathing,
waiting,
she reminds herself that the courage to act
and the wisdom to choose the correct action,
only arrive to those with a clear head.
Matt Johnson
He sneaked through the world
like night itself
And never gave himself a chance
to love
Funny how he never knew
Exactly what it was that he was missing
Anna Hillary
A blanket of snow covers the entirety of the ground
A blanket of silence covers the entirety of this conversation.
You’ll explain things to me,
you say.
But I don’t understand.
Your warm hand touches mine and makes it cold.
The icy wind caresses my cheek and wipes away my tears
that you don’t even see.
You’re sorry.
You say.
But I don’t understand.
You apologize and it makes me sad.
A blanket of snow covers the entirety of the ground and gives me comfort.
I want to crawl under it and hide.
I look at the ground. You look at me.
Nicole Hirschfelder
I melt into the abyss of your embrace
Can you tell what my eyes are saying?
Can you see it in my face?
Rachel Ogden
When I look upon the Earth
I wonder what the Earth is worth
Through pennies, nickels, and dimes I sift
Can we put a price on such a gift?
Laura Muskatevc
Vanilla
Hidden under layers of dirt
Birth of life – the magic of the earth
Sunlight on her – the source of energy
Air around her – the foundation of mass
Rain on her – the fluid of life
Hidden under layers of dirt
Birth of happiness
Kozue Nogami
Fleeting moments of consciousness
Staring at the bright screen
Tired, hungry
Wishing for an escape
The sun shines so bright
Even in Madison winters
I long to experience it
but am trapped inside.
Mary Goddeeris
In and out of my ears,
In and out of my line of vision,
And my grasp.
A glimpse of the lake over the street,
The trill of a songbird over the traffic,
The rush of the wind through the front door.
The natural world’s intercessions.
Chaos and unpredictability
On an increasingly “ordered” planet.
Gwen Stohs-Krause
One letter in the alphabet can change the world
One letter can undo progress
One letter can poison the Earth
One letter can bring massive debt
One letter can kill innocent people
One letter can make an American and an Iraqi alike tremble in fear
W.
Laura Muskatevc
but only sameness is normal!
the Businessman exclaimed
and the Businessman made, and he made and he made and he made this and that for him and her - a thousand
different products!
but all basically the same…
look at the earth, i tell the Man;
maybe then you'll understand - only Diversity is normal!
by that i'll firmly stand
(of Ever-Ever Land i speak sweet morons gather roun'
who does not dare to stand or sit;
may take it lying down);
the sweet morons of the earth, indeed are those who cannot stand for what is right
but accept evil; and take it lying down
"less worse" - is that our national policy? is that the capacity of the human spirit?
"less worse" is not at all better - not for you, or for me, or our children unborn
take a pill, add a filter, all with "less worse" as the goal - but "less worse" is not at all better
Chelsea Booth
'I love a sunburnt country'
Where baked rolling hill
Meets sparking blue sea
Where at the height of summer
the sun can kill
Where the sun's fierce heat
Is relieved by a gentle sea breeze
The dry crackling air
Wilts even the iron bark trees
The earth is scorched
From relentless rays
Even the pavement melts
During those endless summer days
The first roll of thunder
A flash of lightening to the west,
Suddenly the rains arrive
Ending the days long hot test.
Mick Brothers
In the silence the heart raves, it utters words,
a heart that runs wild and free,
free from tradition and social constraints.
It utters words filled with integrity and hope,
hope for the future and faith that other heart will run free.
It is the pure heart with hope and faith that will be most alive.
Lindsey Knutson
Take time out and relax
Yoga class
So many temptations on body and mind
Laziness, selfishness, hunger, romance
Yoga gives me the opportunity to let these temptations float away
But will I have it?
Am I content to live a simple life and be comfortable with nature, with myself?
Excitement or balance?
When I think of the latter, I relax
Adam Robinson
My heart is like a tree trunk
growing heavier yet stronger every passing year
You once could blow me over with a slight fall breeze
As the seasons passed my leaves have fallen
my branches grown bare
a breeze phases me no more
Aileen Strickland
