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Thursday, May 7, 2020

Time for Earthlings to Grow Wise




What do we say in dark times?
When leaders are crass and corrupt,
when they give us no hope,
when a pandemic starts in wet markets,
which open again the minute the lockdown lifts?
When the forests are burning,
and all the wild creatures are suffering and dying,
when children are in cages at the border,
and whales and elephants cry,
and nothing changes
nothing changes
nothing changes
except our awareness
that we are the ones
who need to change.

Tell me the cry of your heart,
and I’ll tell you mine:
the animals are starving, and burning,
are being abused and beaten,
locked in small cages, terrified,
awaiting their brutal deaths,
or encased in steel bars in factory “farms”,
laid out on their sides, unable to even turn over,
when the virus is now in the meat factories,
but everyone still has to have meat.

I hear their cries;
I see their tears, feel their grief,
their despair, their terror,
their endless pain.

We don’t have to be heroes; we just have to live
as conscious, caring beings who love the earth
and its creatures. Our hearts will
show us the way.
Grief will dare you to love once more,
the poet said and, at first,
I didn’t believe, for my grief was deep.
But now, after ten years, I find myself thinking:
maybe, once more, a little black pup,
once more all that love?

What do we say in dark times?
That beings can’t live without hope;
that kindness lifts hearts;
that we need to learn new ways
to live on Mother Earth.
That all of this learning is worth it
if it has taught us how to live
more kindly, all connected
.
That in dark times, our spirits rise.
That it is time for all we earthlings
to grow wise.

Dar fourteen of Wild Writing with Laurie Wagner

6 comments:

  1. It is hard to live in these 'dark times' with so little optimism to be found, when each day brings a new horrible thing. We do hope that we learn from these times, that in the end our spirits will again rise!

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  2. There is a lot of darkness in your lines. I assume the prompt encouraged you to go down that path. I do hope that something positive comes out of all this and that we learn lessons as a society, not just as powerless individuals.

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  3. Me too, Gabriella. It needs to be a major shift and we need visionary and inspiring leaders to lead us. Let us hope some appear.

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  4. I guess only we can bring light into these dark times. It's hard. My husband doesn't want to watch the news anymore. I still do. I feel at least we should be aware of of what's happening so that we can be warriors against it.

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  5. there are twice as many humans as there were 50 years ago. roads, farms and ranches, and then the crystal and gold chalices for the rich... sigh ~

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  6. What do we say in dark times? It's hard to find the words to express how I feel about all this madness. In my heart I hope society learns from this but, some will learn quicker than others. So sad my friend

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