Earth Day - 22 Apr 11

Yes, I missed yesterday altogether - I will write two poems one day this weekend to make up though. My goal is 30 poems in 30 days and I will make that by month's end.

Today is Earth Day, first celebrated in 1970, and as I look around I think Man has created more destruction and poisoning of the planet that hold our lives in Her hands then moving back to connection with the natural world in the years since.

With that in mind, here is today's offering


An Ethical Life

Sitting outside on this April day reading The Sun
on Earth Day, an interview with a man named Singer
on how to live an ethical life leads

And leaves me cold, thoughts chilled by the
potential effects of his utilitarian pragmatism

I agree we are stewards of the Earth and all the
denizens that dwell there on and therein and that
stewardship has many facets and phases

However, I do believe every being, every item
inert or alive, animal, mineral or vegetable
has a purpose and a reason for being

I also believe that plants and animals alike
were put here for our use,
our responsible use

Rules of such use are laid out in many
ancient texts, and if you look at the rules
you can see the reasoning behind them
despite the age of the information

We humans are one part of a much larger ecosystem
one we are destroying with our technological way of life

We create more poisons than we can mitigate
with our machinery and our diet of choice

Our planet is tipping out of balance due to our behavior
and soon She will make the decision to move back
into balance by force if necessary, if She still can

And as I close, I shake my head at my neighbor who
shows just how disconnected from the natural world
we have become just since the first Earth Day
was celebrated before he was born

He could not tell by the feel of the air around him
that rain was not threatening today, for all there
are clouds flowing overhead on their way
to the mountains

He probably flipped open his iPad to check
the weather app, since he is too disconnected from
Mother Earth rely on his own human instincts

Choosing the Abyss

This came to me as I was pondering the state of affairs across our nation and across the world these days, and my eyes landed on a sticky note with the following saying on it in my office:

If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you. - Nietzche

Choosing the Abyss

How many abysses
must we look into
during our lifetime?

The abyss of war
The abyss of poverty
The abyss of struggle
The abyss of division

These are the abysses chosen by Man

There are, however, other abysses

The abyss of love
The abyss of enough
The abyss of concord
The abyss of unity

These are the abysses chosen by our Creator

So why then does Man turn away from those which the Creator has chosen?

Why does Man choose

The abyss of want
over
The abyss of enough

The abyss of destruction
over
The abyss of creation

The abyss of division
over
The abyss of unity

The abyss of loneliness
over
The abyss of comfort

Why?