Recently the Guardian published this poem by Simon Armitage.

I wanted to react to Cop26 – so many of my friends and colleagues have been emboldened by the conversation it has generated. And strange times sometimes lead to strange poems.I was trying to chart the peculiar dream-like state we seem to be in, where the rules and natural laws of the old world feel to be in flux, one of those dreams which are full of danger, but not completely beyond the control of the person who sleeps.The speaker in the poem is watching a world out of kilter, and is full of doubt and distrust, but seems to pluck up enough personal courage to face the future. Let’s call it hope.

Futurama

I crawl out onto the rooftop
above the world’s junkshop,

lean against the warm chimney
and eyeball the city.

The vibe is … let’s say ethereal,
rows of TV aerials

spelling out HEAVEN,
spelling out ARMAGEDDON.

It’s T minus zero
of the Petroleum Era –

all my neighbours
are burning tomorrow’s newspapers

in their back-gardens,
getting their alibis sharpened.

As the hours evaporate
I say to my spirit

I can’t really pilot
this smouldering twilight

over the scars and crevasses,
but I’ll put on my best sunglasses

and steer the cockpit of morning
into the oncoming.

We used it as a starting point for our writers group today and this is the poem I wrote.

THESIS
There is little to be said for any utopia 
that does not hold the seeds of its own dystopia. 
How to resolve internal contradictions 
lies at the heart of all good fiction. 
But I could do without such drama 
to preserve the prospect for our actual futurama.

ANTITHESIS
Living, as we do, in interesting times
and, even worse, in interesting climes
is there any hope that can be found
in seeds beneath this parched or flooded ground
that we can find and tend to nurture,
a lifeline for our children’s future?

SYNTHESIS
Hope is a thing that weathers
storms and strips grief of its feathers.
But, for hope to spring eternal
from the equinoctial vernal,
we too must rise against the danger. 
Not climate change, but system changers!

Mike Stanton November 2021 (with thanks to Derek for the closing lines)