Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 5

April 25, 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 5 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 5

I dance the dance of the hawk.
I am the hawk, hovering over my prey,
Diving, diving to clutch it in my talons.
I am my prey, struggling to break free,
Knowing the terrible fate that awaits me,
The frightening fall when those talons let go,
The painful shock when I hit the rocks below,
The sharp beak shredding my dead body,
The delicious taste of my meat in the hawk's hungry craw.
And I will hunt and be the prey of others,
Dancing, dancing, in a dance that for this moment
Is completely all that I am.

I ride the wind over a narrow canyon.
A slender radioactive river twists painfully towards the sea.
Below me the canopy stretches from coast to coast,
From pole to pole, green islands in a swollen ocean.
The poisons still seep out of their decaying containers.
The Earth swallows them, embraces them, cooling, cooling,
Healing, healing for the next hundred million years.

At night, above us, the stars once again tell their stories,
Once again guide us on our journeys, reveal their beauty.
Once again our spirits sing in harmony with those around us.
Life itself is music, is dance, is grace, is a thing of beauty,
As it once was, as it is again, as it will remain forever.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/winds5.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
April 23: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 3
April 24: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 4
April 25: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 5

Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 4

April 24, 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 4 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 4

Then came a long convalescence, which many did not survive.
Seas stayed put, animals and plants emerged furtively,
Humankind bowed its collective head and vowed its collective vow:

Never again.

Never again to isolate their hearts.
Never again to use other humans,
To use other animals,
To use plants,
To modify the Earth.

Never again to hunt or gather without gratitude,
To breathe without awe,
To live without sacrifice,
To love without humility.

Never again.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/winds4.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
April 23: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 3
April 24: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 4

Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 3

April 23, 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 3 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 3

Eventually, Earth rebelled.
Gates were breached, selves flooded.
None could claim sovereignty, none could deny
That they were droplets in an angry ocean,
Spray that lashed a drowning shore.

Ah! How quickly I became we, and then wee,
Conscious of our inconsequence,
Too late to save the billions of lives
Leveraged by civilization.

Selves, attempting desperately to return to spirits,
Pounded on locked doors, not knowing how to get in.
Too late to learn a lifetime of disciplines, mysteries, rituals,
Of ways of living, loving, speaking, thinking, perceiving;
Too late to become a child again and be nurtured in humility and awe;
Too late to learn that freedom leads to slavery,
While servitude leads to different kinds of freedom.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/winds3.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
April 23: Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 3

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

Windsong for a Healing Earth: Part 1

April 21, 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 1 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 1

This song is a whisper of wind,
The groan of a tree trunk,
The patter of raindrops on leaves,
The buzz of bees buried in bluebells,
The burst of birdsong at dawn,
The breathless silence of sunset,
The canopy of stars above the canopy of forest
Seen from an outcrop high above the forest floor.

Why song?
The sounds of Earth are beautiful enough.
Why painting?
The flowers are beautiful enough.
Why dance?
The bound of a gazelle is beautiful enough.
Why stories?
Our lives are beautiful enough.

Surrender, surrender, surrender,
And you shall become a spring
Gushing up from the bowels of the earth,
Watering the wild garden of the world.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/winds1.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

One Wishes the Earth Were Not So Decimated

April 19, 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.

An Earth Day poem about the environmental damage of overpopulation:

One wishes Earth were not so decimated:
Viscera ripped open, entrails exposed,
Eden stripped bare, over-cultivated,
Returning cash crops as demand explodes.
Poor Earth! Raped and forced to bear the children,
Of whom but few can find milk at her breasts.
Poor children! Forced to wrestle with their brethren,
Undernourished brood of the unblessed.
Let Earth be, O humans! Let her be!
All of you, reduce your numbers now!
The Earth's goods could be shared more equally
If there were wealth enough to go around.
One wishes there were fewer to care more,
Needing less, that time might Earth restore.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/onewi.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

Poem of the Week

April 19, 2012 #681

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Earth Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each must save the Earth in multiple ways.
A vote can cut more carbon than a bulb.
Rules, like acid rain, can span the globe,
Taking aim at those whom blight won't faze.
Hard as many try, it will not do.
Development devours their mite and more.
An equal sacrifice requires a law.
Yet laws are passed by those obliged to you.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 22, 2010 #578
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Earth Day.
 
At the moment, you cannot see this poem on my site, Poems for Free. Google has for some reason tagged my site as dangerous because they found one instance today of a link on my site leading to a site that was infected with malware. I'm working with my host site and with Google to resolve the problem and will let you know when my site will be safe and available once again.

Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Mountains mark the boundaries of our dreams.
Over them lies nothing more than Heaven.
Use them to take well your wistful measure,
Nor can you enter them without the pleasure
That comes from being dwarfed by one great given,
As Being becomes just the God it seems.
In awe one finds a tonic for the soul,
Needing to pay homage to the whole,
Silent angel swelling sacred streams.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 15, 2010 #577
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a number poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Twenty-three believes that life may perish.
What would any lover do but save it?
Each moment is an act of desperation,
Nor can one plead the beauty of sensation,
Though there is much good grace in those who crave it.
Yet now one must sustain what one would cherish.
 
There's nothing for it but to live one's anguish,
Having made one's life a sign, and wave it
Relentlessly, till one becomes a nation,
Embracing all who'll face despair and brave it,
Even though the rest their world relinquish.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

April 16, 2009 #528

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Earth Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Each of us is like one drop of rain,
A single splatter on the thirsty sand.
Remember, though, that drops fall not alone,
The products and producers of a grand
Harmony that waters well the plain.

Do not think, then, that you're on your own,
A tiny drop upon a dying land.
You are a storm, whose green fields will remain.

© by Nicholas Gordon