Oneness

A new poem by Graham 'Gray' Bird about the interconnections of humanity and our link with our living planet.

In those moments
when heart and mind
sing the oneness
of everything,
we simply say:

Of course!
We are
of our people,
of this earth,
of this Milky Way,
of this Cosmos,
of this energy!

Each of us
a tiny temporary fleck
of that great pulse
of energy,
the "BIG BANG".

And awe rises.
We hear the multitude of birds,
or feel some music resonating within,
and see the many greens and textures
of vegetation which at other times
seems dull and even almost grey.

Yesterday, though,
pausing beside
the Northern pylons
of Sydney Harbour's bridge,
I heard mainly
an eerie dull roar
of traffic on all the roads,
and hardly a bird call.

While the pulse of small waves
still kept calling oneness,.
I looked across the water,
saw expensive pleasure boats,
docked ships,
and the Opera House
and the rows of
soaring monuments
to commerce.

And, felt cold.
Was reminded that
these are
the bastions of power,
politics, privilege,
where our collective minds
treat "the environment"
as part of
a crazed god known as

"the economy".

As if, we are on earth
to run around on it
and use what we
can wrestle from it
over the bodies,
spirits and souls
of indigenous peoples,
and poor people everywhere,
while we denigrate
precautionary principle scientists,
greenie protestors,
and anybody else.
Who dare

"get in the way".

Yet, today,
although conscious of
the paradox of enjoying
the comforts of
a super fund pension,
I keep hearing
the voices of
more and more people
singing the oneness again
and my small
guttering candle flame
of hope flickers again
as I hear my soul shout

"we can change"

"Eco-poesis" [Graham Bird]
Culture Lab International,
March-April 2000 and slightly changed on 6 July 2003

Download File:
[ rtf ]