A Child’s Vocabulary

 

loss

cowslip
catkin
kingfisher
culled
from a newly minted glossary
Blackberry a glossy substitute
for juicy blackberries
acid slipping between leaves
of grass
consonants drift
like dandelion seeds
words crumble
like cremated bones

 

[I wrote this poem in response to reading that a children’s dictionary was no longer going to feature a number of words to do with the natural environment. In their place would be words from socia media. I also wanted the poem to link somehow with my painting.]

Earth Spirit

Here is a painting I did over ten years ago. I think it complements the poem, A Song of the Earth, on my previous post.

I am convinced there is is in everyone a very deep-seated sensitivity towards the needs of the natural world. . .

It is an actual part of the mind of Gaia, a genuine connection between our own self-awareness and the earth organism.

[This awareness] can become a conscious manifestation in our own minds of the ‘intelligence’ of Gaia, if we reject the unsustainability of the machine society.

Kit Pedler

The Quest For Gaia

A Song of the Earth

A Song of the Earth

Count every leaf on every tree
Count every leaf in every book
Count every note and every dollar printed
For then you’ll know the times I’ve cried for you
Count every tree on every supermarket shelf
Count every packaged wipe and paper tiger
Count every harp on every weeping willow tree
For then you’ll know the times I’ve cried for you
Count every foxglove and every firefly
Count every skylark and every bumble bee
Count every green desert and every glow-worm
For then you’ll know the times I’ve pined for you
Count every half hectare of burning forest
Count every billion tons of topsoil ravaged
Count every primate caught and traded
For then you’ll know the times I’ve honoured you
Count every time I’ve wondered where you’ve gone
Count every toxic enclosed sea
Count every arctic hare and fox
Count every daffodil and rose
For then you’ll know the times I’ve lived for you