4.3 Writer's Workshop - Spoken Word Poem and Critical Thinking Essay

Writer's Notebook 1: Can Poetry (Music) Change the World?

Writer's Notebook 1 Continued... Love Song to the Earth

LOVE SONG TO THE EARTH

Climate change? Global warming? The plight of the polar bears with the polar ice cap melting? Wildfires? Flooding?

In 2015, a group of some of the world’s biggest names in music wrote and produced a song to support the United Nations’ call for countries around the world to help reduce climate change and global warming. Sales of the song raise money for an organization called Friends of the Earth to keep polluting fossil fuels in the ground, to reduce pollution, and to inspire support for this cause around the world.

Here are some of the lyrics. Read them out loud before listening to the song to find three metaphors comparing the earth to other objects and to get the gist of the song.

Love Song To The Earth

This is an open letter
From me and you together
Tomorrow's in our hands now
Find the words that matter
Say them out loud
And make it better somehow

Looking down from up on the moon
It's a tiny blue marble
Who would've thought the ground we stand on could be so fragile

This is a love song to the earth
You're no ordinary world
A diamond in the universe
Heaven's poetry to us
Keep it safe, keep it safe, keep it safe

Cause it's our world, it's our world

It's not about religion
Money, or perception
How many years we might live
When the only real questions that matters is still a matter of perspective

Looking down from up on the moon
It's a tiny blue marble
Who would've thought the ground we stand on could be so fragile...

As you listen to the song, try to figure out the theme and listen for the three metaphors you found.

Open your Writer's Notebook and complete responses for this song. Then return to the lesson.