Why heads?
did their
they in
do was
it? What
Who was the fool who cut the last tree?
dead they
the killed
to honor Did the
Seeking one living.
soul
ask,
does
any of
this
make
sense?
Will
the
spirits
of the
past
approve
of our
folly?
One day, one man, one saw, cut the final tree. And that was the end.
Author notes
To construct the stone monuments to honor the dead, the Easter Islanders, over a period of about 900 years, cut down every tree on the island to construct rollers and "cranes" to lift the statues. These trees were important as habitat for wild game, a source of cloth and rope, and timber for other types of construction.
As a result, what was once a thriving ecosystem supporting roughly 15,000 people (some estimates go as high as 30,000) become a mostly barren island with a population of 111 by the 1850s.
Their legacy is an important lesson for all, today, if we pay attention.
For more on this, see "Collapse: How Socieities Choose to Fail or Succeed," by Jared Diamond.
A contest entry
- Ode To Easter Island by ea.
500 points, ended July 21, 2007, 10 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 7 of 7
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WOW!!! Great write -- I love Easter Island and this format was very interesting.
Lady Dragonwyck
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Ingenious!
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the wikipedia blames the Europeans for the profound changes on the island -- not the Rapa Nui. (looking under Rapa Nui-the language)
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From the article you cited:
The first European contact with the island began on 5 April 1722 (which was Easter Sunday) when Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen found 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants on the island, although the population may have been as high as 10,000 to 15,000 only a century or two earlier. The civilization of Easter Island was long believed to have degenerated drastically during the century before the arrival of the Dutch, as a result of overpopulation, deforestation and exploitation of an extremely isolated island with limited natural resources. -
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yes, I realized after I posted this that they were talking about the statues themselves, not the state of the ecosystem. Well, good to have this dialogue here if we hope to be generating anything truly outstanding.
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wow, I hadn't looked this deeply at it before. It's kind of a "Lorax" -- too bad it wasn't voted in as a parable for environmental awareness but doesn't that just figure that it was not? I like the palm tree figural and am now yearning for a Moai heads one. Thank you for bringing this enlightening write in and don't let it stop you or anyone else from bringing in a far-out aliens put these here one, too.
P.S. I like the X the palms make and the "seeking to honor" line going up from the left leaf.
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A great figural and a chilling tale of self destruction, well done!
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