Earth Era

A flock of phlox  ( photo/Jan Barry)

This Great, Green Earth

How often we forget the debt we owe

This great, green Earth:

The land, the food, the water, the air…

The mysterious, solitary parent of our birth.

From whatever speck of wet in the universe

Life may have come at first,

It is Earth that cradles us and sustains us,

To whom we are joined for better or for worse.

Let us walk this great Earth once again as guests,

Not as conquerors or even hosts—

For we are no more immortal

Than bluebirds or the continents’ coasts.

--Jan Barry

From Earth Songs II: Poems of Love, Loss and Life