Planet Earth is My Home

Sagarmatha, southern face of Mt. Everest

photo by John McConnico, Associated Press

From the swirling mist clouding the peaks
at the Roof of the World,
where the snow leopard  stealthily pads
along the snowy cliffs,
to the monastery halls of Dharamsala
where the Ocean of Wisdom
prays for Tibet to be free,

http://www.plumvillage.org

to the monks, in prayerful meditation

at Plum Village,

My beloved Wickanninish Beach

to the shores of the Pacific Ocean,
wave upon wave
ceaselessly rolling in,
in endless cycle,
through all the days of Time,

 http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/ccsd/location/bolivia.shtml 

from deep within the forested slopes 
of the Andes,
where the Enlightened Masters
hold the kundalini of the earth
in prayerful reverence,

http://inhabitat.com/life-preservers-for-polar-bears/

to the frozen vistas of the Arctic,
where the Dene follow the Old Ways,
as the New Ways wreak havoc
with the permafrost,
tundra and icebergs melting faster than
starving polar bears can swim,
drowning in their ever more frantic
search for food,

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/AmazonFire/

to the forests of the Amazon,
laid waste for Profit,
as the forests fall
and the Earth
heats up year by year,

http://politicsontoast.com/2011/07/13/south-sudan-joins-the-revelry/

Sudan refugees by photographer Sebastio Salgrado

to the deserts of the Sudan,
where people die for lack of food and water,
while their brothers and sisters
around the world
turn their faces away,
feeling helpless,
and the governments bog down 
in allotment and distribution problems,

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/fall-2011/  

to the camps of the child soldiers,
who know only that life is hell
from which there is little hope
of deliverance,

http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war.htm 

to the "theaters" of war,
hatred and bombs, 
gunfire and peril,
in the streets where children used to play.........

Peace Planet Hands from

http://www.premierbeautysolutions.com/how-different-cultures-come-into-play-in-our-spa/ 

Because we are all connected,
and not one of us can exist
without all the others,
because when a tree falls here,
the earth heats there,
when an iceberg melts there,
sea life dies here,
when humankind hates humankind
and forgets our shared humanity,
my heart lifts and shatters 
ten million times a day:

lifts at the unutterable beauty of this world,
and breaks at how mankind lives
in our suffering Eden.

Because Planet Earth
is my neighborhood,
and I am a
a planetary pilgrim,
I love it
and ache for it,
every day.