is filled with the spirits of all of the animals
who have died in the spill.
Orca-, eagle-, heron-spirits,
hover over the ocean. They rest in trees
along the shore.
They carry a message for the people
of the earth: Wake up. Wake up to
Mother Earth's cries.
Heal her wounds.
After the wildfires,
the smoldering, parched earth
releases the spirits of all the animals
immolated in the flames.
They remain near the black, dead land,
near the horses' bones, the smoldering hooves,
near the deer, and rabbits, and wolves,
near the lives they loved and lost.
They carry a message for the people
of the earth: Wake up. Wake up to
Mother Earth's cries.
Heal her wounds.
After flood waters recede,
and all of the bodies of drowned creatures
are bagged and carried away,
the spirits of that place
sit vigil near the watery graves,
praying we humans will awaken
to our mandate: to restore
Mother Earth to wholeness.
They carry a message for the people
of the earth: Wake up. Wake up to
Mother Earth's cries, her distress.
Awaken to all you can be,
all you can do,
to heal the Earth Mother,
the only home
of All Our Relations.
The idea for this poem came from reading Into Great Silence : A Memoir of Discovery and Loss among Vanishing Orcas by Eva Saulitis. Eva spent twenty years among the orcas of Prince William Sound, both before and after the oil spill. The animals she grew to know like her family are now vanishing due to the after-effects of the oil spill, the intrusion of human development into their wild habitat, and the warming seas of climate change.
shared with earthweal where this week we are contemplating spirits. I think the spirits of the wild must hover around the scenes of devastation, in mourning. I hate to contemplate their terror, fleeing flames and floods, and enduring famine.
This is very moving, Sherry! And sad. We really need to wake up!
ReplyDeleteThis is so, so sad. But these are sad words that need to be said.
ReplyDeleteWe don't often think of the animal orders erased by human catastrophe. So appreciate your bringing their ghosts here. May we wake to these ghosts.
ReplyDeleteIt is not only our own bones we leave behind.
ReplyDeleteThe sea is haunted by so many spirits. Beautifully written, Sherry.
ReplyDelete