Re-Imagining: This is My Backyard–the Great Barrier Reef!
Hi, I’m Gwendolyn Alley. I’m a blogger,
poet, multimedia journalist,
college teacher and I want the best job
in the world: Island caretaker on the
Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
Welcome to my backyard!
Like the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef,
Channel Islands National Park is a place
of amazing biodiversity!
Except there the water’s WARM!
This is my backyard.
People dumped trash and dealt drugs here. So I
wrote grants for native plants and organized
community clean ups. Now it’s wildlife
habitat and it’s going to be a park.
This is my backyard.
I’ve backpacked 2800 miles from
Mexico to Canada on the
Pacific Crest Trail. I’ve scuba dived, sailed,
surfed, skiied, and kayaked. I’ve climbed
14,000’ peaks and done technical climbs
in California, Wyoming, and Colorado.
The world is my backyard.
What happens on one place on our planet
impacts all of us. I invite you
to explore with me the Islands of the
Great Barrier Reef, on the land and in
the sea. I will inspire you to
visit these magic castles of coral,
home to bright anenome fish, sleek reef
sharks, and glorious humpback whales.
On July 1, THIS will be our backyard—
the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef!
Thank you.
I wrote this pentameter adaptation from the script I wrote for my video application for the “Best Job in the World” for this week’s Read Write Poem prompt which serendipitously asks us poets to re-imagine our lives! And guess what I’ve been doing for the previous 6 weeks: re-imagining my life on the Great Barrier Reef and imagining how to convince the world that I’m the best one for the job!
Please support my application! It will show up on the site on Sunday or so; I’ll leave the proper link here. Please view my video and give it 5 stars! You can also see my video on YouTube (below) and rank it there and leave me comments too for all to see! On the YouTube, it is critical to click on “watch in HD.” You can also visit here: http://islandreefjob.ning.com/profile/artpredator
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It’s perfect and wonderful. Don’t forget to remind me tomorrow or whenever of all the things I have to do. Can you send me in a mail a list of instructions, you know how hopeless I am at this stuff. Go you! See you soon.
P.S. Nice hats.
Oh, goodness. I hope you get it! What enormous buzz & excitement over that job.
(Hiking the PCT is a dream of mine, although as my joints start failing, it might stay a dream!)
Nice video. Shows the interested/capable/educator/activist/journalist you. Good luck!
Well done. I like the video. Good luck.
very well done. I love both the text and the video.good luck …
Excellent video, very professional looking. Excellent script too. Good luck!
Thank you!! I worked hard on the script–sooo hard to get a whole life time of adventure and education and experience and passion and desire into 60 seconds!!
Deb, I hope you get to do the PCT one day. It is an amazing experience. I plan to do it again with my son in 5 years! Maybe you will join us for part of it!
have a nice job