Sylvan Requiem
On cutting Old Growth
(which the loggers sneak out at night)
in the Willamette National Forest, trees are being cut, here one tree is left, her partner has been cut down, and she is left alone. I spent several weeks at her base, and then I heard her weeping for her partner who had been felled.
O Grandmother!
I look at you now (in my mind's eye)
And see your
Magnificense-
A tower
A collector of stellar
Pulses
Telling us of our
Common cosmic ties:
Grounding.
I look at your mate now (with my physical eyes)
A bleeding stump
Weeping life's blood,
Your children
Stricken and still.
The earth sends out
Its grieving song
My soul hears
My head bends to you
In reverence and despair.
O Grandmother!
What have they done.
What have they done?
O Grandmother!
Your strength
A testimony
To cosmic life
Your quiet, enduring
Steadfastness,
The outer stillness -
You stand tall and proud bearer of life's repleteness -
Guardian of the holy breath.
Your gesture
The Cosmic A
Your branches: arms that reach up
And sing praise to life's glory.
Your inspiration: distilled etheric substance,
You amplify the life forces,
What singlemindedness your
Erect posture reveals.
O grandmother,
I seek comfort in your presence
Your Being calls forth within me
My eternal self,
Then I remember,
We are all one!
