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Erika Horn
Two Poems
Primal Connection
The sea
is inexorably so:
Anglo Saxons called it
Whale's Path
S'ssh Sssh Sssssh Shhhh
Sea shells sound
In our ears
Ssshhuh Ssshuuuh Ssshhuh
As if forever
had no name
Now
or millennia from now
Expanding / contracting
vistas of water
Always the same as before /
after
You and I
live our little lives
Primordial ooze and
slime of us
Drifting seaweed
towards oceans
Are we
in rotations of waves
Caught in staunch spirals
of waves' tresses
Dreaming of water's pull
on us
Submerged / leaning
towards the sea
Addicted to walking
on water
Like sailors and Christ
fish symbolized
Nine tenths water of
our born bodies
Nine tenths brine of
our mermaid souls
Our tears and sweat relate
to the sea
In deserts we search for
oases of water
Consign our ashes /
at the last
To rest in the sea's /
vast liquidities
Liberated and libertines
We dance / celebrate
drink / sing water,
Reptiles / crustaceans / amphibians
metamorphosed in warm blooded
Animals with sea's gleam
in their eyes.
At dawn
we see our spirits rise:
Vapor on water /
fog on the sea.
For "We Are The Children
Of The Atomic Age"For Dr. Helen Caldicott
I.
For we are the children of the Atomic Age
Before our birth our genes were coded and splicedYet the earth, the earth, is beautiful
For fallout the wind brings that we cannot see
For nuclear power plants and missiles mapping our trailsYet the earth is so beautiful
For the deception of powerful men we pay and pay
For their so strange illusion of boundless powerYet the earth, the earth is so beautiful
for bald eagles and other endangered species
for the tragic magnificence of all the doomedYet the earth is beautiful everywhere
For people born today who will not live too long
For the medical profession which has no enduring cureYet the earth is beautiful still beautiful
For how we turn to flora and fauna for healing and love
for how those men's vision wins out over the earthYet the earth is still beautiful
How we dream again of her green vegetative hair
How they dream of an abstract ghostly heavenYet the earth, the earth, is beautiful
For our irradiated food and pesticide-drenched crops
For our vast indulgences that led to these disastersYet the earth is still beautiful
For foolish men's dreams of escaping to the stars
For their deadly machinery and all its effectsYet the earth, the earth, is beautiful everywhere
for how the polar caps are really melting
for our prophecies of falling into the seaYet the earth, the earth and sea, are beautiful
For the thousands of species that have already died
For us who would like to survive---
For the earth / sea / sky are beautiful, so beautifulII.
For how nature's subtle patterns resemble one another
How fireflies mirror the distant starsAnd Hindu palaces look like children's sandcastles
And the sea contains butterfly patterned fishFor how black bats spread darkness with their caped wings
And light and shadow coruscate in a danceFor how shadows sew the living and dead together
And spirals connect us--fetuses, snails, corpses--
in the world's coiled wombFor how the willow's slender leaves drop like tears
And foxgloves, little delicate bells of dawn,
sway to the gong of the windFor how mountains are molded like breasts
And cowparsnip umbels delicate as grandma's white laceAnd coleuses might have been daubed by artists' brushes
For how bird of paradise have beaks sharp as feathered birds'
And hummingbirds, fishes, frogs and stars share in the
world's iridescent luminescenceAnd for how the trees' leaves are their mantle of hair
That they shed and grow, grow and shed and shed and grow againAnd for how cat, zebra, raccoon and tiger lily
Are marked by the same winddriven eternal fingersFor how our eyes sparkle like jewels, illuminating darkness--
Brown for the earth, blue for the sky, green for the seaAnd for how our bodies contain arteries of water
Like the earth its net of oceans, lakes and rivers--
Its profusion of life sustaining bloodFor how the sun rises each morning on its own legs
And disappears each night into a mesh of crimson darknessAnd for how the moon trails the sea after it
Like a bride a billowing wedding trainFor how fresh snow is like froth of foam capped waves
And for the rainbow painting arches in the skyAnd for how we are here today in the flesh
And for how soon there may be few left like usFor we--we are the children--of the Atomic Age
For all this and for the earth, the earth,
Which is beautiful, still beautiful everywhere we go
Copyright (c) Erika Horn 2003. All rights reserved.
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