Ed,

Something today tells ever more people that we and the natural world that we share is in dead trouble. 

We find many uses for nature’s 5 Star Hotels, but they are not our only home, so here’s a poem for wild creatures that are totally dependent on 5 Star Hotels.

Harry Johnson, Iluka 

Grey Gum

Do you ever find the time

To look in wonder at a grey gum, ancient, straight and tall,

A sheen so soft in the soft light of rain, 

but alight in the morning sun,

A blaze of russet reds and ember golds, 

Hugged, tracked and traced with possum and koala signs,

So why clear lands like there’s no Tomorrow?

Aged “five star” hotel for ten thousand creatures,

That myriad of insects on which we all depend,

So why clear lands? Is there no Tomorrow?

Grand homes for birds that colour our days with life,

With sparkling sights and sounds sublime,

So why clear lands for our kids love more Tomorrows?

Twelve hundred litres, water, drawn from our soil each day,

One huge tree’s effort, that falls as rain another day.

So why clear lands, for there may be no Tomorrow?

Now silent, harsh, the salt-laced soils of treeless, lifeless plains.

This is the world we borrow from our kids.

So why clear lands until there’s no Tomorrow?