When Shall We Wake?

March 24, 2011

What have we done to this fair and lovely world?

Consuming hatreds, inconsolable griefs

Have blinded us to beauty and the truth

Calling us from hidden depths to see

That what is now shall soon no longer be.

Earth's revolt is certain and has begun.

Still the nuthatch in the ancient oak

Presses a seed within the furrowed bark

And upside down, enjoys his tender meal.

The robins listen with a quickened ear

To catch the lowly worm at work in earth.

I watch the stalking heron on still legs,

No move betrays his silent lethal skills,

The hawks on updrafts circle round and round

With eyes that see beyond our limited sight.

All seems idyllic and in balance held

Until we witness the unspeakable acts

Of man in his misuse of a sacred trust.

In India detritus lines the streets,

Paper waste and plastic the Mother's body

Despoil and rampant pollution threatens lives.

In other countries people cannot breathe,

So foul the air one walks in a yellow fog

And oil spills ruin the oceans of the world.

When shall we wake from somnolence and greed,

Recover joy in the simple and unique?

We must undo the damage we have wreaked

Or earth will overturn the life of man.