Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 2

April 22, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Part 2 of an Earth Day poem depicting the eventual destruction of the environment and the more environmentally friendly civilization that will follow, inspired by The Fifth World at https://thefifthworld.com/:

Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 2

The original sin was the sin of self.
Self sprang from spirit and said:
I am I. I am not you.
From this falsehood came much evil.
Humans claimed dominion over the Earth,
Plowed deep wounds into the land, enslaved animals,
Enslaved their own brothers and sisters.

I am I. I am not you.

They poisoned the Earth for millennia,
Poisons that still leak from their cisterns,
From their white-hot chambers,
From their mounded waste,
From their drowned or buried ruins,
From their long-forgotten hearts.

I am I. I am not you.

Immediately, spirit was struck blind,
Became deaf, became dumb, became silent,
Could no longer hear the words of wolves,
The whispers of wild grain,
The songs of trees,
The passions of wildflowers;
Dwelt alone behind the borders of self,
Cut off from the spirits that surrounded it, besieged it,
From the ocean of spirit that thrashed against its walls,
From the love that waited at its gates.

I am I. I am not you.

But you are us.
You poisoned us,
You poisoned all of us
When you poisoned yourselves.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/winds2.html. For more poems for Earth Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/earthdaypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Earth Day.
April 19: One Wishes Earth Were Not So Decimated
April 20: Endless Earths
April 21: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 1
April 22: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 2