Best Carbon Dioxide Poems
The Enmity
Seeking justice is the only way you knew how to protect us.
As a juvenile delinquent I was too young to recognize it.
I am always trying to justify it,
Knowing the whole time you had a hold on me that only I could see.
As you continue to play tricks on me,
I was a novice but with your help no one ever noticed.
Discourage by the public, I became irrelevant.
You showed me things that were not true,
You told me that everyone was wrong but you.
They were not the enmity the enmity was you, your lies eventually grew.
Conspiracy theories I let you convince me.
I was weak, and you got the best of me.
Making me believe everyone was out to get me,
And no one could ever love me.
You said he was a cheater, and were cheating on me brought out my insecurities.
Insanity you drove me, anxiety confines me.
Vindictive was all I consisted of.
Taking my past out on everyone that crossed my path.
You controlled my laughter, you told me when I could laugh.
You held my happiness captive in a glass capsule.
Like carbon dioxide you traveled in me throughout my lifetime.
Highly poisonous colorless, and odorless you were my organic carbon.
I am panic stricken and the plot only thickens.
You are my enmity the brain that was giving to me.
My very own paparazzi my mind taking snap shots of me.
I am my worst enemy, the enmity has always been me.
As of right now you control the words that are coming out of me.
You want me to see what you see.
I see the good, the bad, and the ugly that you made me.
My mind has always been in control of me.
Telepathy of my enmity, cofounder of simply me
In my vantage-point the vast oceans are warming,
The sea levels are rising, while today is melting,
Cracking thick ice-shields crowning Artic, Antarctic
And ferocious intensity is churning Atlantic, Pacific,
As yesteryear in rear view flashes blunt warnings,
And future is admonishing~ morrow is drowning.
Snow-white Alps, soon forgotten dreams of past,
Rockies, Himalayas, barren as dethroned crowns,
Productive farming lands, infertile lacking rainfall,
Breeze of winsome winds, belching carbon dioxide,
Elixir of life poisoned by chemicals in water supply,
Paradise on earth soiled by callous human assault.
Proponents believe it’s true, deniers claim it’s false,
It’s an inexplicable dialogue of a human paradox,
Some assert it’s here now, others are nonchalant;
Tomorrow is troubled~ warns the flipped hourglass.
God! here comes the flood, here comes the storm,
Here come the disasters, hurricanes and cyclones,
Here comes the famine, here comes the drought,
Here on our display~ are shortcomings and faults.
Raise your voice, shout aloud~ dares anxious heart,
Apocalypse now! clamors an ubiquitous time clock,
Time to act is now, commands a flipped hourglass,
Before shore-lands vanish and coastal towns drown,
Before the earth’s scorched, before life is parched;
Before the game’s over, before checkmate is called.
February 8, 2022
Placed 1st: Pick-A-Title, Vol 28 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Title chosen: Flipped Hourglass
Numberless now ...
Many, the years since then
When I uncurled my toes and reached thru soil
Pushed up and spread out
While beneath me the richness of the earth nourished
Spreading tendrils through the dark and damp
To give me strength and secure purchase
Ring-by-ring my girth increased
Branches spreading ... reaching for the air
Capturing the weep of heaven
And bounding toward the warm of the sun
Water surging like blood
Chlorophyll coloring my bloom and breadth
Carbon dioxide like the breath of life
Deep in ... oxygen out
Little ones doing their work during the green time
And their bright, crisp, beautiful deaths
Autumn's blanket, their last deed
Countless, those cycles ...
Yet ... I stood strong over HER
Sheltered her from rain, child-to-woman
Shaded her quiet time in the summer swelter
Covered her loves in the autumn chill
Let her swing in my boughs, up to the sky and back
It was my pride to care for her these years
To offer my strength and cover
And mostly, to hear her sing to the meadow.
Yet now she swings again in my boughs
Dangles amidst my strong arms
Lifeless ... on a rope.
Oh, if only I were a willow
For then I, too ...
Could weep.
Written on January 7, 2020
N/A'd on June 13, 2020 in the the "I Am A Tree" Poetry Contest
Submitted on June 16, 2020
To the "N-A Re-Run 8" Poetry Contest
John Hamilton, Sponsor.
Once there was a famous king,
More famous than Ozymandias.
His name was King Wolf.
Sultan was his nickname.
He called himself a benevolent despot;
And his style of government
A ‘democratic dictatorship.’
He spoke good English—
A foreign language, though;
Only a minor problem with 'l' and 'r':
Once, for instance, a reporter asked him,
"What about elections, Your Majesty?"
His response:
"Why, I have them everyday!"
The poor reporter was thoroughly confused.
His kingdom was a land of superlatives:
The oldest civilization,
The largest standing army,
The largest population,
The largest exporter—of people,
The largest emitter of carbon dioxide,
Now the second largest exporter of goods, too,
And will soon be the largest.
Since his was the most populous kingdom,
Demography was his obsession,
Which he called his specialization.
Of course, Sultan had tried his best
To check population growth—
By means of family planning.
It didn't work.
So he curbed people’s Right to have children.
But still there was a huge difference
Between the optimum number
And ground reality!
Therefore, Sultan hatched a wonderful plan:
Started a war with a friendly neighbour.
Every section of twenty soldiers in his army
Had just one primitive rifle between them:
If a soldier went on,
He would be shot.
If he went back,
Again, he would be shot.
A Catch-22!
Many of his men were slaughtered.
But still Sultan won—by sheer numbers!
Oh, God!
But the King did not believe in God.
Like king, like people!
But the dead soldiers were only a small number.
So, now another plan:
Government is the boss.
Let people overwork.
Sultan cracked the whip.
And a number of people died—
Of overwork, year after year.
Further reduction in population.
Production increased:
Cheap goods flooded the world market:
From PCs to push-up bras.
No warranty.
The economy boomed.
Ah, his kingdom became a Big Power!
But once some workers gathered
In the Capital and protested—
Against exploitation.
The name of Karl Marx was in the air.
“Listen,” Sultan roared, “Marx died—
Long ago.
So should you—now,
For raising his name in vain.”
So, still further reduction in population!
Now, when this narrative ended,
Sultan was busy, planning for another war.
Poor soul!
How else could he solve the problem—
Of overpopulation?!
***
STEPS ASIDE
They’ve banned the “step counters”
Outlawed the treadmill and stationary bike
Banned jogging (aka fast walking for the elderly)
Sports will be limited to “non-aerobic” activities
Tiddlywinks tournaments will be Government funded.
Scientific research and investigation
Funded by the “stay inside and die sooner” chapter
Of the “Governmental Gottcha Groups”
Has conjectural and anecdotal evidence
That the heavy breathing induced by exercise
Increases the carbon dioxide emissions
Of those engaged in anaerobic exercise.
Suggested alternate activities are:
-Daydreaming,
-Scheming (aka conspiring with imaginary friends)
-Meditation…without chanting
-Astral Traveling (with or without passport)
-Thinking, but only about the things presented in our booklet
-(also known as “Talking Points)
Or the “Rip Van Winkle” solution…
Go to sleep for twenty years
and hope it’s all over when you wake up.
John G. Lawless
©2/24/2023
CRY PLANET CRY
Every country is guilty of polluting planet earth,
All the way down its length and across its girth,
We all will ultimately pay the deserved price,
Who will be first, it’s like rolling the dice,
To mention a few, Moscow, to London to Perth!
We throw plastic bottles, packets of take away food,
From car windows, from high buildings, so crude,
Rubbish mounts up horribly in suburbs and cities,
We are committing suicide, was it this bad in the fifties
People then could plan for tomorrow, no longer dude!
Factories, trucks and old cars emit carbon dioxide,
We walk and drive through rubbish, have we no pride,
Do we not sorrow for the future, even the morrow?
We might as well go freeze at the top of Kilimanjaro,
I see a planet mourning, hopeless tears will be cried!
We must practice dialogue intellect and compassion,
Is all this now out of fashion, where is our passion,
Presidents, prime ministers, all rulers look ahead,
For quite plainly if you don’t we are all dead,
No malignant plans please, and no more dispassion!
For Contest, 'What I Love-What I Hate' Sponsored by Tom Wood
Every Tree in the Park
I love to stare through leaf-shade under wide trees,
Under confetti-scraps of green-gold sunshine
Scattered by a breathing invisible breeze:
Each planted parasol a unique design.
I love seed-codes, sudden sprouts, giants’ ages;
Bud-burst, summer stretch, autumn, winter stages.
When bowed in purple storms, when wild branches thrash,
Lightning strikes, cracks. Trees, still magnificent - crash!
Mozzies Buzzing
I hate can’t-be-seen sneaky mozzies that whine.
Sniffing for carbon dioxide, these teasers
Ignore other people and focus on mine.
Why are all others not such mozzie-pleasers?
I snatch vacant air, slap and smack my own face,
Flick the light, but of the slim insect - no trace.
Could I suffocate hiding under this sheet?
I pulled it too high - now they’re biting my feet!
Kirbe the CO2.
The C is carbon and the O is oxygen. The 2 at the end of the CO2 means there two oxygen.
That what CO2 is which makes carbon dioxide. He lives in the atmosphere.
Kirbe is very busy. When the sun is shining on plants, he goes to work. Plants perform
photosynthesis which converts light energy to chemical energy.
The photosynthesis converts Kirbe to carbon hydrates, food for the plant, releasing oxygen
in the process. Now now. Kirbe isn't dead, he still at work.
When work is done, Kirbe is released in the atmosphere in several ways: Through
respiration performed by plants and animals.
Through decay of animal and dead matter. Through combustion of organic material that
produce carbon dioxide like cars.
On the surface of the oceans where water becomes warmer and through volcanic eruptions.
That a lot of ways Kirbe is released in the atmosphere. When time passes, so does Kirbe.
As Kirbe travel back into the atmosphere, he takes a long break. Or does he....
Nope, Kirbe continues working because it's a cycle that never stop. For its Kirbe the CO2.
The heart of the sea is a mother's heart
She is the great ancestral mother of all life on the planet
Deep within the mysterious waters of her womb
she conceived and gave birth to the first life form
which evolved into more complex organisms
that live on the land and in the air
She is an essential part of the planet's ecosystem
feeding the clouds which bring rain and snow
that sustain life on the earth
Through tiny ocean plants and photosynthesis
she removes carbon dioxide from the air
and converts it to more than one half of the oxygen
in the earth's atmosphere
She is the great food provider to the planet
having her own internal food chain
with tiny phytoplankton at the lower end
and enormous sharks and whales at the upper end
She feeds creatures from the land and air
that venture to fish in her waters
She is a thing of beauty even in her enraged fury
with massive waves towering over a hundred feet
and the seething white foam of her waters
This has been her action
even before the advent of man on the planet
Man must respect her behaviour
or suffer death and destruction if he does not
She is a thing of beauty in her calm stillness under the setting sun
which lights up the evening sky in its glorious splendour
and paints a glistening beam of light on the water's surface
in line with the sun and surrounds it
with brilliant colours of the rainbow
Changed climate is not a surprise
With drilling for gas on the rise
Where can life forms hide
From carbon dioxide
And methane let loose in the skies?
Neo-druids auger gas wells
And add fluids with sulfurous smells!
Are poisons they've tapped
With their magic wands trapped
Evermore by sorcerous spells?
Votes and news seem not relevant
The unrelenting elephant
In all our best rooms
Is fossil fuel's fumes
And toxins we can't circumvent
Chew beans?
BLUE jeans
Chew grass?
Cow gas...
*Cows and other livestock cause 18% of the damage to the ozone layer; ranking 2nd only to carbon dioxide…Freon from air conditioners, etc. contribute far less than either of these. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that livestock do NOT include beans in their diet...THAT would indeed be a case of:
Tragic
Magic...
1/10/2015
Tim Ryerson
I am a party animal, my heritage is mixed
quite content to lounge about when conditions remain fixed.
Suppose that’s the nobility which Krypton must provide,
maintaining stiff upper lip when I’m all buzzed inside.
Then too, I’m mostly nitrogen, which is very stable,
tamping volatility of oxygen: it’s able
to combine with hydrogen (that’s also in my make up).
Uncontrolled? Oh that would lead to an explosive break up.
Carbon Dioxide? Its percentage varies night and day:
vegetative respiration, or so the boffins say.
I wonder why I don’t glow multicoloured in a storm:
my neon, argon, radon being Vegas lighting norm.
If I had more Helium the humans would sound squeaky.
I imagine the attraction of that chap Enrique
Would suffer greatly from affliction. He’d become mundane,
and prove downright offensive if I gave him more methane.
I’ve also Nitrogen Oxide, not Nitrous NO2,
and a soupçon of ozone which had once protected you
from harmful rays from Out There much more than now is measured.
It seems that humans cannot see what really should be treasured.
I’m moved by friction of the Earth and pressure off the bat
while Coriolis effect pushes me this way and that:
north and south of the equator, the opposite I spin.
Any other speculations, my friends, are simply wind.
SATURATED SEEDLINGS:
Start
A solid life form
Shelled until Saturated
Grounded in suppressing soil
Surrounded and submerged in darkness
A seminally insignificant seedling
Attempting to sprout above the horizon
To let the sweet sunshine photosynthesize itself
The green applaudance
As its begins breaking through the darkness into the place of life and light
A mother nature portraying the master plan
Sustenance is essential to create a city changing seedling that will ultimately bear fruit
Bringing sustenance to us
A significant circle if life
One gives one takes
All of us are going to be replaced
Give and receive procedures amongst nature
The essential elements are present
1 Hydrogen, 2 oxygen with a dash of nitrogen
Along with a sunshine, soil sustaining its very being
Electromagnetic energy
Red and blue wave lengthens to create a green plant
Carbon dioxide, water and Certain salts
Being converted into kinetic energy
Development and gradual increase
Advance enlargement of cultivation and elevation
Through evolution?
Expansion and extension fleshing out
Flowering germination of this generation that will not settle for termination
A multiplication of produce and prosperity
A maturing- multiplication process
Let the cultivation culture captivate us
Bringing a faith
We cannot see the seed below the ground
But does that mean that its no longer there?
There is a rooting before the uprising and sprouting
There is a constant substance
That is done in secret and isolation
End
Smoking is banned in public places
God designed us to breathe fresh air
Evolution says the strongest will win
The circle of life with forests, we share.
But we know better than omnipresent design
We can tax all those stepping out of line
The tax will put right all that is bad
And make governments rich, but not care, it is sad.
Man cannot live without the fresh air
The planet will die without some real care
We rape and we gouge the rainforest for gain
The lungs of the world, the forests in rain
Each hectare gone, a species extinct
The rich will get richer our fresh air can stink
Man cannot live without the fresh air
The planet and we will die without care.
The forests breathe in our carbon dioxide
A waste product from breathing from life the world wide
Our forests through photosynthesis
Convert it to oxygen, so we can live.
A child born in a world without any air
Will die straight away, there’s no one to care.
Stop the rape and the pillage of a the world we once knew
Let the climate re-grow itself can renew
Not taxes for man to make governments rich
Put back the forest our climate enrich.
There is no birth, no death, no rich, and no poor
As the lungs of our world die, we are no more.
© Mandy Tams 23/11/2014
I write this bouncy little tune
With a flouncy ickle fume
My poems are the best
In the world
I rock the planet more than
Mountains and hills
Indeed, I am orf me rock
Except for sulphur dioxide
Volcanoes erupted in Washington
So did a drug culture
I nearly forgot what an excellent poem
Writer that I am
Insane, yes
Real, no
The bells won't stop ringing
In the church
Flow chart, box chart
Insane brain chart
Money, by golly
I'm rich
Lottery money, the dough just rises and rises
Carbon Dioxide
Lovely summer, autumn and winter
Ahhhhh memories of home
Enjoy