Carbon Farming (Poem)

Carbon Farming (Poem)

For my CFP teachers

I wanna hitch my wagon 

To the sun. It’s not 

Absolutely inexhaustible, but for

My lifespan and

The life of my people,

It’s good enough.


Choking on heat?

Burning in fires?

Parching with thirst?

My friend, step this way:

Soil organic matter

Is the answer 

To your fever dreams

Of despair, your

Pleas for help,

That some people

Would have you believe

Are inherently

Unanswerable.

Fiddlesticks to those naysayers!

A pox on all our houses

If we give up,

Roll over,

Stop dead in our tracks.


Today I saw a western bluebird

Near a musk sage

Planted two years ago

In this drying land;

Last week, a native bumblebee,

And a swallowtail butterfly.

Nature is whispering encouragement

Through subtle and open movements

While I carry buckets 

Of yesterday’s livestock water

To trees and shrubs 

In the cool morning hours,

Before my upper lip

Beads with sweat.

The dogs smile and pant:

What’s the game today?

The sheep jump, four-off-the-floor,

When we enter a fresh paddock.

And now here I am,

Learning how to plan

Carbon farming,

Talk the talk,

Crunch the numbers.