We here at Typecast believe those that can, should. And not all business is bad business.
We also have to acknowledge as a business that we contribute to the energy consumption of this country, even though we have always done what we can to use recycled materials and be conscious of the environmental impact of our products.
As such, we have decided to donate 25% of all our earnings from now until the end of June to the Gulf Restoration Network, a nonprofit group in the Gulf who has been working for many years to restore the area. They were there before, during, and after Katrina; and they will be there long after the television cameras have taken their focus off the Gulf oil spill disaster.
So, if you’ve been on the fence about subscribing to Lumberyard, or thinking about pre-ordering a copy of Matthew Lippman’s newest book, Monkey Bars, we hope you will take this opportunity to do so. In essence, you’ll be supporting both the Gulf and the arts at the same time–now how can you say no to that?
Below we have posted a poem from Monkey Bars–just one of the many from this collection that we have been turning to these past few weeks as we work to get our heads around what has happened to our neighbors down south.
FROM GOD’S NOTEBOOK
by Matthew Lippman, from Monkey Bars
The ocean is not blue.
The sky is not blue.
My feet hurt.
When the tide comes in
the boats crash.
The heat is so hot
the funnel of the sky has melted.
It rains plastic and glass
into the arms of the forests.
When the ocean moans
it has hair on its back.
At the shore, I can hear the elephants cry.
They are like the whales
except that the whales have disappeared
into the center of the earth
so that one day,
when the planet explodes,
they will cry out from the blast
and be the last voices heard.
No one will be left to say,
Listen to their song.
It is not a song.
It is a heartbeat stopped.
The collective thump of all the birds and dogs
and mosquitoes gone quiet.
What I say to the ocean when I have my feet in the sand is this:
It is my fault. It is not my fault.
