Hieroglyphic stairway

drew dellinger
©2003

it’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep

my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?
surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?
as the mammals reptiles and birds were all dying?
did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?
what did you do
once you knew?
I’m riding home on the Colma train
I’ve got the voice of the milky way in my dreams
I have teams of scientists
feeding me data daily
and pleading I immediately
turn it into poetry
I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech
I am the desirous earth
equidistant to the underworld
and the flesh of the stars
I am everything already lost
the moment the universe turns transparent
and all the light shoots through the cosmos
I use words to instigate silence
I’m a hieroglyphic stairway
in a buried Mayan city
suddenly exposed by a hurricane
a satellite circling earth
finding dinosaur bones
in the Gobi desert
I am telescopes that see back in time
I am the precession of the equinoxes
the magnetism of the spiraling sea
I’m riding home on the Colma train
with the voice of the milky way in my dreams
I am myths where violets blossom from blood
like dying and rising gods
I’m the boundary of time
soul encountering soul
and tongues of fire
it’s 3:23 in the morning
and I can’t sleep
because my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the earth was unraveling?
I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech

 

drew dellinger
drew@poetsforglobaljustice.org

I Will Be a Good Steward of the Earth

With will my mouth is open here to speak
My pen is poised to carve each word with care
Uncurb! my tongue to share what must be said
Breathe forth! my soul my mind and all my heart
My courage! bear this truth for all to know.

Stop! Oh passers-by. Yes you! Take heed!
Bring your inmost selves to matters here
Grasp with your ears and hearts a crucial truth
Think! your minds. Confront and now decide!
Commit with these few words to change the world:

“I believe the world needs me to change.
I will live simply.
I will walk lightly on the Earth.
I will be a gardener tending carefully.
I will be a good steward of the Earth.”
alcemena12