Earth Day is upon us again and in lieu of a long winded letter on how we should all change our practice to protect the beauty of the planet on which we are lucky enough to inhabit, I thought it may be more spiritual to offer some poems inspired by Earth Day or the writers love of the unspoiled Earth.
Enjoy and Dream
Happy Earth Day from Conserv-A-Store and pass them on if you choose
I am of the earth
She is my mother
She bore me with pride
She reared me with love
She cradled me each evening
She pushed the wind to make it sing
She built me a house of harmonious colors
She fed me the fruits of her fields
She rewarded me with memories of her smiles
She punished me with the passing of time
And at last when I long to leave
She will embrace me for eternity.
I am of the Earth by Anna Lee Walters
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. ~John Muir
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
-Robert Frost
seeking comfort in a walk-in closet
this little room is spared
as a forest preserve ridiculously reserved
for leftover green space incorrectly prepared
cigarette butts against our soles
again and again and again
smoke stacks the air until acid rains
throwaways litter mother’s sensitive skin
her pathways have become paper trails
when no one’s looking the common good fails
we subtract life’s essence with knowing hands
with mindless rituals of the manicured lawn
rake nutrients; add fertilizer, plant killer, water
coexisting with nature has been withdrawn
as unkind man advances, the environment recedes
like fiber and flesh that can’t breathe
on a park bench in a walk-in closet
will my children find Earth has gone the distance
or the ecosystem in clear plastic containers
and life decidedly a skeletal existence
Plant a tree
Watch a bee
Go clean up the
Sea!!
Let’s leave our planet
to be,
What it intends to be
So we, and all life
Can Be ……..
Bonnie Pelton
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