A Poem

Warm Greetings

This poem, and the following post written by Derrick Jensen, were both shared with myself and the other women who gathered one week ago for a weekend of being in ceremony and close to the Earth. Each touched my heart.

Peace & Blessings ~ Molly

* * *

We've been reading it wrong.

It's a story of how we took

nature down with us all right,

but not because we're such

important hot shots that what

we decide goes for everybody,

or the Creator is such an abusive

s.o.b. that he punishes the innocent

for the crimes of the guilty if

the guilty are godly enough.

We are a twisted species.

We bend our view of the universe

around ourselves as center cog.

By our distortion we have injured Eden.

We haven't a clue.

Complexity grants that the least
significant events or choices
affect everything to infinity --
microbes on pear trees, and
the honey bee as well as
human beings.

Our infant species dreamed it was

above its elders, beyond its betters,

the high-chair tyrant entitled to rule

the rest, and worse -- granted this

by a god. We named the others and

proclaimed them Other, ourselves

what counts, holier than them.

We threw ourselves out of Eden.

Injured by us but alive,

it's still here all around us.

We have only to return to our senses,

wake from our hubris, sit down

with our creature kin and humbly ask

by what name each knows itself,

and listen, without denial or defense,

for the names they have been saving up

to call us.

Once that's over we can negotiate

everything and start again

with what's left.

Then --

In the beginning . . .

The Rev. Alla Renee Bozarth

Poet and priest, Wisdom House, Oregon

From Prayers For a Thousand Years