deepwater
An exceptionally poignant lament on the oil spill, both its net effect and its tragic impact on the Gulf pelicans in particular, from Hannah Stephenson and The Storialist, "Deepwater":
Like resurrected pterodactyls rising from tar,
the birds emerge, dragging sludge-sodden wings.
Behind them, a new set of tracks: triangular valleys
flanked by grooves, like the marks left by skis.
Too heavy to be raised, these wingtips rake across
sand. The birds stumble under the mass placed
onto them, a brown-black cloak, a leaden veil.
It was not our intention to suffocate these birds
with their own bodies. We are so very sorry.
We offer what we can, money, soap emblazoned
with the image of a dove, a steady, gloved palm.
Explosion, detonation, flame, death--we understand
these things. Finite. Spill, too, implies a completed
action, finished, accidental. Infuriated, aching
we watch what we made and keep making,
an unnatural disaster in progress. It is undoable,
it is still happening. What trawls the soul about
this spill, that horrible monster down there:
it is an alien we trapped, a dinosaur that we awoke,
a dark beast we tried to harness. We called out to it.
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I'm very grateful to Susan Millard-Schwarz for pointing me to this poem written by her stepdaughter Hannah, and to Hannah for allowing us to share it here. Katelyn Beaty posted a very meaningful reflection on Christianity Today the other day as well, "The Cry of the Oil-Soaked Pelican." I hope you'll read the brief editorial yourself, but here's a preview:
I'm not surprised these birds are revealing sobering spiritual realities; Jesus told us to "consider the birds of the air" (Matt. 6:26) and other small, weak things—lilies, mustard seeds, doves—to learn the ways of the kingdom of God. ...
It seems the gulls and pelicans mired in the oil spill are teaching us that our misuse of oil and other natural resources will eventually bring disaster to the created order. They are schooling us about the wages of carelessness and constant bottom-line thinking.
MotherJones has an excellent report with photos of the pelican cleaning and rehabilitation taking place at Fort Jackson, Louisiana, which Scott and I visited on Tuesday but weren't allowed access to. We did see from a distance a couple of outdoor enclosures where the pelicans placed to dry off after cleaning and get some sun, with an occasional head and wing flapping into view. As of Tuesday noon, just under 600 birds had been taken in.
From MotherJones' "Inside Oil-Spill Pelican Rehab" article by Mac McClelland:
"These are the birds that are all better?" I asked a rehabilitation worker. "These are the birds that are nearly better," he said. "They won't be all better until they're released back into the wild." And then only maybe, since their survival rate at that point is estimated at 50 to 80 percent—and that's if they don't get slicked again.
Still, much better news than the dire survival rates reported a couple of days ago, as low as 10% potentially, via The Huffington Post. It is true, sadly, that many pelicans have perished before rescuing, others won't survive the rehabilitation process, and still others won't surivive substantially past release. But I was relieved to talk to both a U.S. Fish and Wildlife official and Humane Society of the United States representative who said the dismal survival rate projections were derived from isolated sources and studies, and definitely overblown.
A video from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, featuring Jay Holcomb of the International Bird Rescue Research Center which is partnering with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research at Fort Jackson, was shared in the Mother Jones article and is a captivating and encouraging depiction of the cleaning and rehabilitation process:
More powerful photos, tragic in capturing the presence of the oil spill and hopeful with respect to some of the rescues taking place, are available at Boston.com's The Big Picture.
("Deepwater" poem copyright Hannah Stephenson; "Gulf-Oiled-Pelicans-June-3-2010" and "Gulf-Oiled-Pelican-Before-After-Cleaning" photos courtesy International Bird Rescue Research Center/Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license))
June 17, 2010
Reader Comments (5)
That video was amazing. What a disaster! Luckily there are people who care enough to spend that kind of time rehabilitating animals like that.
I couldn't agree more, Josh, it was a very interesting video to me too, and I appreciate how dedicated these folks are to the individual animals being brought in - Ben
Thank you for posting my poem alongside the other information. I found this post both encouraging and realistic. The before and after image is wonderful.
If you haven't already, you may want to visit the site Poets for Living Waters: poetsgulfcoast.wordpress.com
The poem was very, very touching. And the video was so neat. What a wonderful thing that people are caring about individual birds--just like God cares for us. Each one matters. Thanks, Ben--and Hannah!
Not a problem, Hannah. I'm grateful you allowed us to share the poem, and thank for your response to the rest of the post. I'm glad you felt it complemented the poem. And thanks for the encouragement as well, mom - Ben