The W3 Weekly Poetry Prompt is hosted this week by Poet of the Week Selma Martin.
Selma’s rules and prompt guidelines •Format your ‘prose poem’ like breaking news; •Give it a bold attractive title; •A beginning/middle/end; •Make it a Good News account of something that will benefit us all. Use strong, positive VERBS; •Add enough detail to make it believable/relieve us of some stress; •Not short, but not too long;
No pressure then. Hmmm, I’m not sure how to approach this prompt. To write a prose poem like news reportage? Sounds difficult to me. I’ll have a go though.
Good Evening News
The Lyrebird and the Chainsaw
The story that saved the rainforests
by our columnist Lesley Scoble
an historic announcement: the Leaders of World Governments sign the Lyrebird Treaty.
They have confirmed today that the world’s starvation crisis has ended. The treaty agrees to ban deforestation. This incredible news comes after decades of tireless efforts to replenish the world’s rainforests. Rainforests are crucial to the health of the planet and ensure global food security. Deforestation is against the law. The chainsaw law bans the cutting down of trees.
The Lyrebird Treaty
The Lyrebird Treaty, named after the famous bird that drew the world’s attention to the plight of nature overwhelmed by man’s destructive and inexorable advance into the wild. His song of lament to the tune of a chainsaw cutting down his habitat was an indictment. His voice strung on chords that awoke nations worldwide, to the malignant cancer of the verdant lung. Without rainforests, our planet cannot breathe.
A ban is also placed on insecticides. To feed the world, pollinators need protection.
A second motion to ban *artificial grass, plants, and plastic hedges is in progress.
THE LYREBIRD
& THE CHAINSAW
The lyrebird lives in the forest of rain. Under a tall hardwood tree, he repeats a call again and again.
In wonder, it is the call of the chainsaw chain.
The chorus of his song mimics the rustling of leaves and the snap of wooden limbs of trees.
They’re closing in.
With a sawing, gnawing, severing din.
Beneath the soft canopy
in the shade of a tree,
the lyrebird doesn’t know,
no trees will grow.
Not here anyway,
not at home.
The chainsaw will come.
The ancient forest clears.
Loud and louder it nears.
A shroud of noise.
He hears
the chainsaw call.
He hears it all.
Irrevocable.
Encroachment
without reproachment.
A torment of sound the size of another football ground.
Across the land, across terrain, it creeps.
His mimicry is a memory.
He sleeps.
Breaking news: A plastic-eating amoeba discovered
An amoeba that can tackle plastic and turn it into a fertiliser has gained approval for use by the Agency for Global Environment (AGE).
In recent trials, they proved the amoebae can absorb an acre plot of *artificial grass in a matter of days. It leaves the ground with a rich mulch. To allow the earth to breathe and become fertile again.
This remarkable micro-organism was discovered by Professor Bakalite, Oxford University.
Lesley Scoble. March 2023
They signed this momentous Lyrebird treaty today in a tumultuous mood of euphoria and hope.
Acknowledgements My thanks to Selma for this tricky challenge. Thanks as always to David, W3 Weekly Poetry Prompt Image credits Photo of newspaper stand and newspaper mock-up | Lesley Scoble The Lyrebird and the Chainsaw | AI generated illustration by DALL-E Notes The Agency for the Global Environment (AGE) and the Professor Clara Bakalite are a figment of my imagination. I hope that in the future, all the conservation reports featured in my mock newspaper GOOD EVENING NEWS — Saving the rainforests; Protection of insects; Elimination of plastic pollution; Will one day move from the realm of fiction into reality.
LesleyScoble.com 
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