by Albrect Durer, 1471 - 1528
watercolor at Albertina Museum, Vienna
How to Own Land
Find a spot and sit there
until the grass begins
to nose between your thighs.
Climb to the top
of a pine and drink
the wind’s green breath.
Track the stream through alder and scrub,
trade speech
for that cold sweet babble.
Gather sticks and spin them into fire.
Watch the smoke spiral into darkness.
Dream that animals find you.
They weave your hair into warm cloth,
string your teeth on necklaces,
wrap your skin soft around their feet.
Wake to the silence
of your own scattered bones.
Watch them whiten in the sun.
When they have fallen to powder
and blown away,
the land will be yours.
Morgan Farley
~ here is an interesting blog & connection to Tolstoy
~ and another excerpt
Clearing
I am clearing a space
here, where the trees stand back.
I am making a circle so open
the moon will fall in love
and stroke these grasses with her silver.
I am setting stones in the four directions,
stones that have called my name
from mountaintops and riverbeds, canyons and mesas.
Here I will stand with my hands empty,
mind gaping under the moon.
I know there is another way to live.
When I find it, the angels
will cry out in rapture,
each cell of my body
will be a rose, a star.
If something seized my life tonight,
if a sudden wind swept through me,
changing everything,
I would not resist.
I am ready for whatever comes.
But I think it will be
something small, an animal
padding out from the shadows,
or a word spoken so softly
I hear it inside.
It is dark out here, and cold.
The moon is stone.
I am alone with my longing.
Nothing is happening
but the next breath. [emphasis added]
Morgan Farley
~ found on gratefulness.org
The Great Piece of Turf, 1503 ~ Durer
Previous Earth Day Posts
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
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