Bridging the Gap

source

The bridges are all falling down,
so we must build them up again:

the bridge between your world, your experience,
your perception, your ideology, your reality,
and mine;

and especially the disconnect
between human beings
and the natural world.

The teachings of the First People
are the bridge from
settler/dominant consciousness
to the healing and restoration
of the Earth Mother.

Let's leave behind
our unthinking, destructive ways,
and respect Mother Earth
as a thinking, feeling, conscious being,
alive in every atom of energy,
in every blade of grass.

Our only bridge into a better tomorrow
is the understanding that
we are one with everything,
and closing the gap
between earth and spirit -
between self and other -
between you and me.


for Sumana's prompt at Midweek Motif at Poets United: Bridge

I just finished reading The Archipelago of Hope, Wisdom and Resilience on the Edge of Climate Change, by Gleg Raygorodetsky, who travelled to places feeling the effects of climate change, speaking with First Nations elders. Two of the closing chapters are written about his visit to Clayoquot Sound, where I live. I recommend it highly. Last night I attended a workshop by a young Tla-o-qui-aht woman, Gizele Martin, who taught that in the language of her people "the only word for wilderness is home."