Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Mother Tongue



Mother Earth - credit Earth First Newswire


There is one language that is the same 
all over the world.
It is the way Mother Nature speaks to us,
whether we live in the desert,
in the mountains,
by the sea,
along a river,
in rolling farmlands,
in the jungle,
or on an African savanna.

When each of us stands at our window 
in the morning, 
or steps outside to greet the brand new day,
our eyes lift to the sky,
caress the hills, the water, the grasslands,
follow birds in flight,
listen to their song,
breathe in the fresh breeze,
breathe it right into our beings,
our mother, above and below,
keeping our lungs
moving  in and out.

There is a hum scientists have detected
coming from the centre of the earth.
It is Mother Earth, singing to her creatures
her song of love.
We attune to it without knowing,
a child to its mother's heartbeat.
She slows us, stills us,
reminds us to breathe,
keeps us looking up
at all the wonders.

That feeling in your chest,
when you watch an eagle in flight,
when you stand under the starry heavens, 
in touch with the Great Mystery,
when you walk in an old growth forest -
That's it,
that universal language
that we all understand,
the voice of the land we live on - 
in my chest, in yours,
in everyone's,
gladness to be alive,
loving Mother Earth,
Mother Earth
loving us back.

for Susan's prompt at Mid Week Motif: Mother Tongue: International Mother Language Day, this past February 21. Do check out the links. There will be some good responses!

30 comments:

  1. Yes, Sherry, your poem is true. Maybe someone else can tell if they attune to it if they grow up with no glimpse of the earth. I have never been anywhere where there was no nature, though I have been places where sounds drown her out.. Sometimes my own thoughts block her out. I like the idea that if we want to connect around the earth, that's the language to use.

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  2. ah... that sun rise is seen around the world... amazing... i think you brought the world together

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  3. Yes, mother earth connects us. And love is her language. Beautiful write Sherry. Like a prayer.

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  4. Yes, I think we can all have a connection with Mother Nature and hear what she says. I particularly like how you express this in the second and fourth stanzas.However some people seem to have totally lost that connection.

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  5. Your words ring beautiful and true Sherry....the connections are there....some are just more open to hearing it than others. Love this beautiful piece of poetry prose!

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  6. So very true, Mother Earth speaks one language the world over......

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  7. There is nothing more satisfying than being at one with nature, of connecting with earth, breathing her in, seeing all creatures and plants as siblings and touch the soil and feeling the warmth of your mother and her kiss in the rain. Now how can we protect her?

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  8. I can't believe I almost passed this up! For a second I thought that I had already made a visit, but I had not!

    I love that you used our Mother Earth for the prompt. I love reading your words and feeling as one as I read along. One with nature. One with you. One with the earth and all it's offerings and creatures. Very lovely, Sherry :)

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  9. Sometimes we hold our breath for her display is too wonderful for words.
    The language of nature is diverse but so worth listening to.

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  10. we attune to it without knowing..ha...i think that is right....and there is a music that nature shares with us if we were willing to listen...makes me wonder too if our future is in the stars, because would we survive the detachment from her...

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  11. Oh Sherry, reading your poem is such a treat...you make us meditate with your words...every word blooms and we are taken into its essence forgetting everything around us....

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  12. Beautiful reminder...how we mortals forget and dwell in elitism and superiority.

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  13. A very sweet poem, Sherry, and wonderful in its descriptions of how nature speaks to us. k. (Manicddaily)

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  14. This is really an incredible poem Sherry....if we could all just listen a little more closely to her.

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  15. How easy it to forget there is always one loving, constant, reliable mother...we just need to stop and listen out for her

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  16. the language of the universe, when first the stars language carried us here and then planted us in the fields where mother earth spoke to us about maintaining it and the wind still whispers every moment of every day and the Eagle plays in its breath, this is the language born to all that is .

    gracias mi amiga

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  17. Yes there is a single language in the world.

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  18. Your poem causes my eyes to fill with tears...such beauty and harmony in this one language. I ♥ Mother Nature.

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  19. That feeling in your chest,
    when you watch an eagle in flight... yes... i totally get this... there's such a connection within creation that it sometimes makes me wanna grow wings..

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  20. The language of mother earth, I love the idea that we understand this ~ Beautifully written Sherry ~

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  21. I like being 'attuned' with Mother Nature, Sherry. Every now and then we need to be reminded how much that involves.
    We are also 'aligned' with Mother Nature by the gravity of Earth. So many of her rules and laws, pleasures or hurts, influences of all sorts we take for granted.
    In death we may be released from her grip.
    ..

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  22. Sherry, don't know if I have told you, but this is a perfectly beautiful poem. I have read it a number of times and it moves me each time. The line that knocks me out is the humming, Mother Natures song. I have heard that song -
    I really love this, my friend, really really love it.

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  23. Yes, if we listen, if we pay attention we are rewarded in such extraordinary ways. You say it beautifully.

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  24. I love the poem, and the language of the earth.

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  25. it seems some of us have lost our tongues, or grown deaf ~

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  26. Sherry,

    You are so right about a universal Mother Tongue, which should express the basics of respect, care and thought for the world, nature and the planet..Sadly, many prefer to remain silent, while life changes dramatically all around us..

    Sorry for my late visit, but I have been ill with a horrible cold..Lost time!!
    Happy Weekend,
    Eileen

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  27. Ever so true, Nature speaks a universal language as does music. Lovely poem.

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