In 1994, this poem by Sarah Mantz, then a sophomore at Salisbury High School, was selected as a winner in an Earth Day writing contest sponsored by the Lehigh County Office of Solid Waste Management. (Her winning poem was also published in Echoes Magazine.)
Her poem seems to fit not only this month, but the ecosystem-threatening times in which we live:
April
I am the fourth spirit.
In April, I watch over the Earth,
But look what has been done to it!
Every day I cry a thousand tears
Remembering what a great planet mine once was
And seeing what it has been reduced to by mankind.
The Earth crumbles in ruin because of these proud people.
But yet, there seems to be hope
For even now they are seeing their mistakes
And they are trying to correct them.
Work hard to help your Earth, try your best to save it.
Hope that the future of this planet
May be as bright as its past
So that when my tears have finished showering the land
The Earth’s brightest treasures can bloom again in May.© 1994 Sarah Mantz