The idea for this poem was sparked by my attempt to reconcile my life-long calling to end the use of nuclear power and weapons, with many spiritual teachings I have studied which teach that what we resist, persists. I haven't yet completely figured out how to reconcile these two apparently opposing impulses in myself, but I think this poem is a good first step. I also use language like "nuclear free" rather than "anti-nuclear", and work for safe, sustainable and renewable energy sources, not just against the use of nuclear energy.

This poem also celebrates my LOVE for the Creative Re-use Movement!

Recycle Nuclear Plants!

by Laura Sue Wilansky 8/17/07

Recycle Nuclear Plants!
Yes, recycle other stuff, too, but definitely, absolutely, no matter what...
Recycle Nuclear Plants!

Yes, turn those old wine bottles into candleholders,
or layered sand sculptures, or
Beautiful earthen-domed living rooms with a thousand round colorful skylights....

Yes, turn those old TV cabinets into homes for your ducks or lizards or books or plants....

Yes, turn those old electronic parts and broken jewelry into tiny little, sweet little, funny little figurines, each one unique and special and individual, and looking just a little alien - just like you....

And turn those old spools from thread, and little pieces of plastic and cardboard, and broken playing cards and parasols from drinks into doll-house furniture for the figurines to hang out in....

Yes, turn those old bicycles and used tires, broken machine parts, and buckets with holes into garden sculptures and plant holders....

Yes, turn that old broken pottery into artfully-tiled floors.

Yes, turn those old juice boxes into brightly-colored purses.

Yes, turn those old cereal boxes into masks, and check book boxes into gift boxes, bandaid tins into storage for your sewing needles, and lemon drop tins into bead storage....

Yes, turn those old newspapers into gift wrap - especially the comics pages!

Yes, turn those old Scrabble tiles into darling name labels for your mailbox or your kids’ cubbies.

Yes, turn those old bottle caps, and toy soldiers, and game pieces from games that you lost the other pieces from, and just about anything into beautiful, moving mobiles, by hanging them on thread from sticks or chopsticks or old used swizzle sticks. Get calm spending hours watching them spin....

Yes, turn those old keys into the most beautiful wind chimes you’ve ever heard....

Turn those worm castings into the best, cheapest organic fertilizer ever, and pack it in old used soda bottles - or just buy it from the folks who are already doing that!

And, of course, turn your rusted-out 39 Chevy, your broken bricks and cinderblocks, and your old trash cans into brilliant backyard barbecues and steam cookers....

And take the funky leather seats out of those old, used up cars, and turn them into comfortable seating for free outdoor community movie showings!

Recycle ideas! Find out who’s got the plans for those great electric cars, and cities with mass transit train systems, passenger trains with fabulous sleepers and dining cars, and engines that run on water - and all those great things that used to actually exist in this country before someone bought them out and destroyed them....
find those plans and build all those things all over again!

Recycle ideas! Find the best solutions that somebody else already figured out for how to do non-violent conflict resolution and holistic healthcare, organic farming and Truth and Reconciliation Councils, how to raise happy, healthy kids with self-esteem, and how to create community - and use them again and again and again!

Yes, turn those swords into plowshares....

Yes, turn everything, Everything into Art!

But most of all....

Recycle Nuclear Plants!

Take those artfully-curved smokestack cooling towers, fill them up with banana peels and egg shells, coffee grounds and spoiled corn meal, and turn them into giant compost heaps....

Project big light sculptures on their sides....

Turn them into giant community graffiti walls....

Cover them with blinking lights and display positive messages and groovy light patterns that can be seen for miles around....

Take the chunks of cement and grind them up and use them to build schools and hospitals and day care centers and veterans care centers and community centers and museums and playgrounds and ANYTHING except more nuclear plants!

Take the cooling ponds and turn them into fish ponds, so we’ll have those cute little three-eyed fish, just like on the Simpsons!

Or just turn them into lotus ponds and grow the biggest, beautifulest lotus blossoms anyone has ever seen!

And all the Buddhists will come and meditate there, and everyone will get very high....

Take the plutonium rods and give them to the folks at Disney, who are very smart, and very creative, and know a lot about creating fantasy scenarios, and let them figure out what to do with them....

After all, Plutonium has Pluto right in the name!

Recycle Nuclear Plants!

Take the control panels and video monitors and audio speakers and rewire everything, and turn it into a giant free public access TV studio, open to all community producers!

Take the fences and put them around the White House and the Pentagon and Congress and the FCC and Homeland so-called Security and the Nuclear so-called Regulatory Commission to keep the inmates in and the rest of us safe!

Take the nuclear plant employees and retrain them to be radio engineers or chefs or cartoonists or solar panel installers or forest rangers or nurses or anything except nuclear plant workers!

Recycle Nuclear Plants!

Whadda ya mean we can’t Recycle Nuclear Plants?!

They’re radioactive? Well, yeah sure, but that wears off after a while... right?

They’re radioactive for HOW LONG?! Are you freakin’ kidding me?!

Well, um, why are we still building new nuclear plants?

Hmmph.

Okay, so don’t Recycle Nuclear Plants. But we can still recycle everything else, right?

Thank you!

This poem may be copied and shared as long as the copyright notice
and a link to my Nuclear Free Zone: http://www.SilverNightingale.com/nuclearfree.html are included!

Muffins courtesy of Code Pink!

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