Dappled light through the dark egresses
Shafts of brilliance falling immeasurably
A disservice to measure such a thing
By divisive terms not accurate enough
To explain the possibilities contained within
The dark folds of evergreens and undergrowth
Expansive for the soul, such nature unbinds
The heart, the being, and the mind
Freeing the spirit within to witness God
Fingers of creation reaching for the sky
Crag covered majesty stretching ever
Folds of ancient hardened earth demanding
For us minute creatures to witness it
To take upon its view and be humbled
For such majesty has a cost eternal
And we pay willingly, without reservation.
This place is not our own, it is borrowed
Earth surrounds us and we declared ourselves
Masters and owners and drivers and destructors
But no thing such as that can be owned by man
Our ancestors knew, they intuitively understood
That holy places do not fall under deeds
Nor are they contained in writ or word of law
Except to except them from such things
No treasure this great can be owned by man
Tetons laugh in their ancient grinding tongue
As their arms spread wide to the universe
Wheeling above them in matching grand majesty
We pave roads, we build lodges, we find paths
But all of it is temporary, an itch, a fever
That the earth must endure, but will surpass
We are nothing but witnesses to their glory.
The lift is heavier for my children
Than it should have been for my myself
Than it could have been for my parents
I saw an article from 1900 saying coal
Could end this civilization, and even then
What? Apathy? Dismissal and scoffs?
Men in walnut paneled rooms not caring
For a future they would never see
For an impossible possibility ignored
They carried on, pushed further
For human progress was the greater goal
Could they know that there is no other
There is not another step, there is
Nothing beyond the edges, around corners
This is all there will ever be
And the mountains shall not mourn our passing.
Now, forests burn uncontrolled world-round
The darkness is encroaching on us now
Pushing further on, embittering us to a future
That no one wants but few stand against
Deniers and apotheosis of ignorance
Elevating opinion to beyond science
They revel in their misinformation
Finding destruction preferred to acceptance
Resolute in their mud prisons of idiocy
They wallow in their filth of usage
Discarding trash unrecoverable, surmountable
Eating acres of flesh in their desire
For comfort and fulfillment within, bottomless
They are depths of pits without end
And we all carry the cross which we will hang
How will this not lead to the end?
Such questions are fraught with uncertainty
Such concerns are shot through with fear
But what are we, not improbable creatures
To pull ourselves from the soup
From the impossible aims of dumb evolution
From the mired counter of human driven
Pressures of hate and tribalism, unbound
Yet we gather, we sing, we alight
To a shared human experience, inescapable
We are the same at our cores, in our hearts
We love, we care, we share along our tables
We must surpass our tribes and banners
We shall cast our flags to the fires
We must forget our mirrors and remove
Our own that create such prejudice and division
We must incrementally craft hope within.
We must find ourselves again, hidden now
Our natures are here, among us all, our hands
Need to feel the earth again, we must touch
Like an eager lover, full of anticipation
The turn of the dark soil under our blackened
Fingernails, and we must fill our neighbor’s
Bowls, ensuring they can eat with us
That we can serve them our labors and loves
And they can care for us when we struggle
We must find the sparks of hope within
Pull them from the husk covered shells
Breathe upon them shallowly, give them breath
And speak to them of love, unbound
Agape of the soil, of our neighbor, ourselves
We isolate the sparks, blowing into fires
And bring our hope brilliantly into the future.
Will the mountain care for such things?
Will it speak of us in its ancient language
As the planet continues onwards its journey
Interminable, hurtling billions of miles forward
But our children and their children can
See all of this, and marvel upon the glories
That we managed not to destroy and remove
They can stand upon this clearing
They will take this sight and internalize it
Weeping at the glory discovered
The sight now fulfilled and brought home
To share with their hope filled friends
Their loves and their passions
Apart of this earth, hands feeling warmth
Of stone and soil, sun and stars
All of them, made ours, true progress found.