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Mother Nature Is Bipolar

Mother Nature is bipolar.
She needs to take a pill.
One minute she’s a blowhard.
The next one she is still.
I’ve seen her hail in April.
I’ve seen her snow in May.
I’ve seen her sun in treetops,
Before blowing them away.

When she is calm and peaceful,
The world’s a sunny place.
Her night gown often sparkles
With stars of outer space.
With breezes gently blowing;
Pretty flowers in the field,
I see abundant beauty
That cities have concealed.

She likes to visit Florida,
But then she acts insane.
She has an eye for trouble.
It’s called a hurricane.
She loves to keep the people
On the west coast wide awake,
When she stomps around the region.
They call it an earthquake.

If you think she isn’t angry,
Then take a trip to Java,
The Indonesian Island,
Where she erupts as lava.
I’ve seen her lightning crashing.
I’ve heard her thunder roar.
I’ve seen her rivers flooding
Where they never did before.

What Mother Nature gives us,
She soon can take away.
Tornadoes in the Midwest
Can happen any day.
Yet with this Mother Nature
We’ve declared a truce:
The gifts that she keeps giving
Are free for our own use.

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LTC Roy E. Peterson is a writer, retired U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, Foreign Area Officer, and Foreign Commercial Officer who currently resides in Texas.

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24 Responses

  1. C.B. Anderson

    Living in New England, I can relate to this poem. They say, if you don’t like the weather here, then just wait five minutes. I say, the weather giveth and the weather taketh away.

    Reply
      • C.B. Anderson

        That doesn’t surprise me, Roy, and I’m sure that your droughts are much worse than ours. As for hurricanes, we only get the tail-end of them up here — usually. Weather change is perfectly normal, whereas climate change is, so far, nothing but a myth.

  2. Brian Yapko

    Great poem, Roy, which I relate to more than you can know. Here in northern New Mexico we dipped down into the 20s and had snow a few days ago. Today it was in the mid-60s. Mother Nature is pretty darned capricious!

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      Thank you, Brian! Although I never live in New Mexico, I do have more friends there that know how capricious it can be!

      Reply
  3. Paul Freeman

    ‘The gifts that she keeps giving / Are free for our own use.’

    Geothermal, wind, solar energy, etc, to tackle the climate change reality, are indeed free.

    An intriguing poem, Roy, and very timely.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      I am thankful for the gifts Mother Nature gives as well. I have many poems about that subject. Thank you, Paul!

      Reply
  4. sally cook

    Roy, if people coiuld only see That the old lady knows nothing of “climate change” – it’s WEATHER , and she’s been churning it up for centuries. Nice concept, making this peripatetic goddess in charge of it;

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      I absolutely agree, Sally! You encapsulated part of what was in the back of my mind while writing this!

      Reply
  5. Theresa Dould Cummings

    I do believe that mother nature is giving back to us what we did to her. We have polluted her skies, lakes, streams, rivers, oceans. Wherever we went we always left trash. Mount Everest had contained so many oxygen cylinders from past climbers, not to mention the occasional corpse. The orbit surrounding mother Earth is cluttered with satellites and more encapsulated corpses. We have left our remnants on the moon and now on Mars. We certainly are a trashy visitor wherever we are.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      That is a sad, but true, commentary on what we have done to Mother Nature. We shall reap the whirlwind.

      Reply
  7. Janice Canerdy

    You have penned THE BEST personification of Nature I have ever read. This poem is exceptional!! It would be really difficult to choose favorite lines.

    Reply
  8. Jeremiah Johnson

    Gotta say I love the Yoshikazu illustration. Reminds me of those scenes in the gospels where Jesus and his disciples face off with storms in their fishing boat.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      Now that you mention it, Evan did a great job of finding an apt piece of artwork.

      Reply
  10. Paul Freeman

    Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have increased at an ever greater rate. No wonder poor old Mother Nature has been struggling to absorb the over abundance of CO2 from the air, especially with the mass deforestation going on around the tropical regions, especially.

    And yet Nature’s still willing to give, despite Mankind’s parasitical behaviour.

    As I mentioned above, this poem is a timely reminder, what with COP 27 happening.

    Thanks, Roy.

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      You are right to call attention to the problems we have caused ourselves by ignoring natures needs and requirements. This is a different perspective for me outside the weather versus climate debate.

      Reply
  11. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Roy, you capture the ever-changing mood of Mother Nature perfectly in this beautifully conceived, toe-tapping poem. She has always been temperamental and unpredictable… and always will be. I love her… most of the time. Great stuff – thank you!

    Reply

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