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Jardillier – MEEF – « Sauver la planète… »

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Earthrise—A Poem by Amanda Gorman

The following poem by Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda
Gorman was read from stage at the Los Angeles Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training
on Tuesday, August 28, 2018.

Our Purpose in Poetry:

Or, Earthrise

Dedicated to Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project 

1 On Christmas Eve, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders 

2 Snapped a photo of the earth
3 As Apollo 8 orbited the moon.
4 Those three guys 
5 Were surprised
6 To see from their eyes
7 Our planet looked like an earthrise
8 A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon, 
9 with deep oceans and silver skies. 

10 It was our world’s first glance at itself 

11 Our first chance to see a shared reality, 
12 A declared stance and a commonality; 

13 A glimpse into our planet’s mirror,

14 And as threats drew nearer,
15 Our own urgency became clearer,
16 As we realize that we hold nothing dearer 
17 than this floating body we all call home. 

18 We’ve known
19 That we’re caught in the throes
20 Of climactic changes some say
21 Will just go away,
22 While some simply pray
23 To survive another day;
24 For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor, 
25 Who when the disaster
26 Is declared done,
27 Still suffer more than anyone. 

28 Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time, 

29 Of this, you’re certainly aware.

30 It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you
31 From knowing an inconvenient fact, because
32 It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait. 

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33 So I tell you this not to scare you, 

34 But to prepare you, to dare you 
35 To dream a different reality, 

36 Where despite disparities

37 We all care to protect this world,
38 This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel 
39 To muster the verve and the nerve
40 To see how we can serve
41 Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician
42 To make it your mission to conserve, to protect, 
43 To preserve that one and only home
44 That is ours,
45 To use your unique power
46 To give next generations the planet they deserve. 

47 We are demonstrating, creating, advocating 

48 We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient
49 With the future of our youth. 

50 And while this is a training,

51 in sustaining the future of our planet, 
52 There is no rehearsal. The time is 
53 Now
54 Now
55 Now, 
56 Because the reversal of harm,
57 And protection of a future so universal 
58 Should be anything but controversial. 

59 So, earth, pale blue dot 

60 We will fail you not. 

61 Just as we chose to go to the moon 

62 We know it’s never too soon
63 To choose hope.
64 We choose to do more than cope 
65 With climate change 
66 We choose to end it—
67 We refuse to lose.
68 Together we do this and more
69 Not because it’s very easy or nice
70 But because it is necessary,
71 Because with every dawn we carry
72 the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star. 
73 And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down, 
74 But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready, 
75 Because an environmental movement of this size 
76 Is simply another form of an earthrise. 

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77 To see it, close your eyes.

78 Visualize that all of us leaders in this room
79 and outside of these walls or in the halls, all
80 of us changemakers are in a spacecraft,
81 Floating like a silver raft
82 in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.
83 We relish the view;
84 We witness its round green and brilliant blue,
85 Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:
86 What can we do?
87 Open your eyes.
88 Know that the future of
89 this wise planet
90 Lies right in sight:
91 Right in all of us. Trust
92 this earth uprising.
93 All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before
94 For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core, 
95 To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.

96 https://naaee.org/eepro/blog/earthrise-poem-amanda-gorman?autoplay

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