Thursday, June 12, 2014

All My Relations (a poem in progress)



All My Relations

I am the fading hemlock,
flayed orange by woolly adelgid.
I am the soft creek,
sneaking past the mossy rock.
I am the bright bubble,
bouncing along the surface.
I am the cobalt sky,
reflected in the caught pool.
I am the broken giant,
cut short by careless campers.
I am the hearty moss,
clinging to decay.
I am the worn path,
kept soft by loving soles.
I am the cool winter breeze,
rattling leaves and coaxing trees to moan.
I am the nervous wren,
flitting across the brushy floor.
I am the hawk,
calling, arcing high above.
I am the woodpecker,
wheezing as I glide between trees.



Too, I am the din of airplane,
laying trails across the sky.
I am the coal ash,
dumped foul into the river.
I am the oil spill,
slicking the ocean and its floor.
I am the choking albatross,
full with unnecessary plastic objects.
I am the starving child,
in too many places to count.
I am the tired mother,
running circles around the sun.
I am the greedy banker,
collecting, collecting, collecting.
I am the addicted teenager,
searching for what cannot be found.
I am the abandoned slums,
left to nature to transform.
I am the contaminated water,
where creatures adapt or die.
I am the one whose greed
has disrupted the balance of nature.




I am the one who has come to make it right.




words and images ©Honor Woodard 2014

3 comments:

Laurence Holden said...

Some really powerful pairing of lines, thoughts, sensations, and the way you take us on a leap from one to the next,turning the experience of one thing into quite another. like "I am the soft creek/ sneaking past the mossy rock" "I am the cobalt sky,/ reflected in the caught pool" "I am the hearty moss,/clinging to decay" Oh! especially this last pair! Powerful verbs! Keep going - deeper and deeper. Bravo!

Adam Stoltman said...

This is so wonderful. More people should see this. Beautiful, timely and so very relevant to our times.

Honor Woodard said...

Thank you, Laurence and Adam for your kind words. Adam, there are "email to" and "share links" on all these posts, so feel free to use them. :)

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