Copyright © 2009 Ernest Bloom.
Born into this Earth
We lived in accord with plants and animals
The land owned us
The energy of soil and rivers fed our souls
Sunshine and sparkling waters were purchased
But we can still live vicariously in beautiful images of
Nature's museum
High towers of steel and glass
And parasitic powers that scamper for cracks
When the lights come on
Scheduling our emergencies and play-dates
And swapping stocks and pollution credits
At the least we might ponder these matters with a
Pang of nostalgic guilt and duty
Gentle sleeper:
These visions painted on your eyeballs
Are fantasy
The 'gentle sleeper' ending was my favourite part of this poem - the 'dream imagery' here is beautiful. :)
ReplyDeletei think in the early 1970s there was a conscious desire on the part of the rapidly fading open-eyed stumblers and mumblers to live in accord with the natural world, but this concept was successfully and secretly reposessed by economic lions and serpents -- get your head out of the clouds this is how life is types -- and we have no memory of it now, somehow. what's more frightening than the unquestioning acceptance of a 'nature museum'?
ReplyDeleteI loved the nature museum imagery. This is verily a grotesque picture of decay intertwined in a dream- a dream for recuperation. TO rebuild the wonders- yes, that is a dream but I'm afraid I am closer to those types you disdain than to those dreamers. I fully support the vision of, at the very least, sustaining nature in its current state, preventing any further deterioration but only in so far as our own welfare isn't grossly endangered by such practice. Humanity needs to develop and expand. The most we can do is proceed with expansion in such a manner as to cause the least detriment to the state of the pristine beauty of Earth. Truth is, water and resources will run out on Earth eventually, no mater what we do. If we really wish to ensure the life of future generations, what we need to focus on is finding another Earth. OR finding a way to turn debris and waste matter into H20(through some wild atomic level structuring). Thus, it is science, science and inevitably science whichever way you look. Can science go along with nature without compromising its goal? I am slightly skeptic, but I do hold a glimmer of hope that our ecologists will, indeed, manage to pull this impossible feat off.
ReplyDeletemostly i agree, louis, although we can't run out of anything; it remains, locked into new forms. we require proactive planning, of which we have none, none. just what is it we are trying to do as humans being? we either manage ourselves and our relation to this planet better, or we go to new planets, or both. but everything we do is try to react to catastrophes we create, and we never succeed fully in that. but this is not really what i was addressing. i only meant that once when i was young there was popular consciousness of all these matters, but that awareness has been surgically cut away and discarded, so that now even to entertain such thoughts is a form of heresy. we do not operate our machines; they operate us, and their hunger is for the planet and for every human inhabiting it, and we can't wake up long enough to perceive our peril.
ReplyDelete