Author Information
I've Been To Earth's Funeral (A Couple Of Times)
Folder:
Commentary on Apocalypses I think the Earth has 9 lives
I'm merely trying to figure out
How many times Earth's already actually died
So I can calculate if I should dispair
About the next apocolypic scent
People are shouting is in the air
I've been to the Earth's funeral
A couple of times since I was young
Each time it was an open casket,
Nothing in it
But a small pile of dirt and ashes
Representing what was
And people cried and walked away each time
I was young, scared and confused
Hid behind the altar and lingered on...
Watching, in the wet soil,
Eventually, seedlings come up
I've realized it's easy to confuse The End with winter
And forget our panic and despair when the spring comes back in
Only to cry once more that they sky is crumbling when the leaves fall
On a different day than we expected because what we've seen before defines Infinity's walls
Now, the other half of humans go numb
Eventually don't notice the ringing of the church bells, at all
And, in a place like my birth city, the air sirens that'd go off each day at noon
Also, passing by of jets scrambling from a nearby fort somewhere is always just a drill
So who can be sensitive, at just the right level, to know
How many of it's lives, the Earth has already lost
And when the next one is really gonna be gone
Because I'm merely trying to figure out
How many times Earth's already actually died
So I can calculate how much I should dispair
About the next apocolyptic scent
People are shouting is in the air
Cause, you see, I've been to the Earth's funeral
A couple of times since I was young
Each time it was an open casket,
Nothing in it
But a small pile of dirt and ashes
That grew seeds
Maybe the question
Isn't whether it's gonna be over
But whether what grows out of despair and repair and renewal
Is what we want for Earth's next life, our future..
I Like This Poem
The dual refrain as if saying it over again is an image of hope and continuance. It ain't over until it's... Change is in the air. Every historical upheaval has prophets prophesying. "Will our time fail?"
.
Covid-19 could mutate and kill 80% of humans. I am not favoring predetermism, but self-determinism has a few flaws. Still, with 400 thousand of us left, maybe fewer other species will go extinct - guns being banned. Turtles and rhinos could stage a comeback.
.
Humans back in nature, making concrete and steel taboo works for me. We will not live to see last homo erectus standing, but maybe someday a better woman will discover our scribbling and avoid our bloopers.
.
Miracles are the fate we make.
...a
.
Thank you for sharing your
Thank you for sharing your thoughts at length. Every historical time has prophets, indeed. Perhaps, sometimes, it's even useful for the question to be asked "is this it?" I haven't experienced that sense, though. If nothing else, I believe corporatism has completely rendered that possibility void by capitalizing on our apocalyptic fears and repeatedly telling us the end is near, in one way or another, in order to get us to react the way they want. In 2008-9, for example, the end was near if we didn't give trillions of dollars to banks, airline, the car industry, etc. We've sought of repeated this again with the panic that suddenly hit like a tidal wave with coronavirus in March and April. Then we have presidential elections, which are now sold to us as apocalyptic decisions: "pick my guy or we're doomed", each half of the duopoly says. And so on.
"Miracles are the fate we make." I really like that, and suspect those are words which will carry themselves with me going forward.
We all need miracles more
We all need miracles more than ever imho
I do certainly sympathize
I do certainly sympathize with your emotions, though. Whether our need for miracles is more, or just different (and I think it's probably the latter) than has historically been true, we do have a lot of uncertainty and potential suffering to navigate carefully. I think that realizing that we've been here before, even if in different ways, might help us to do that rather than hurt us, though.
A Tendency
.
Caveman/woman sandbox politics. We have a penchant for building and destroying. I think it's hormonal. In times of plenty, powerscapes evolve. We work better together when resources vanish. If limited, we fight over them. Humans. Go figure. ~S~
You know, when rabbit
You know, when rabbit populations are high, birthing rabbits will often place their newborns in poorly protected nests, sometimes right out in the open, almost as if they hope the young die. I've witnessed this with my own eyes this year, when my cats each trotted up to me with a dead baby rabbit, and then one led me to what could only loosely be called a nest - which led to me to do the research and find out such behavior is fairly common when adult rabbits are plentiful (which, in my neck of the woods, is currently the case). Could this, in a sense, be similar to the human problem that you suggest is ripening before our eyes? Perhaps. I had similar contemplations in a recent conversation with a family member. Absolute necessity is the mother of cooperation, just as it is the mother of mothering ; )
Maybe. But how do we measure
Maybe. But how do we measure that against the miracles that "cave men" needed to survive early human history and get us here? Or those who were in the way of wrecking ball of the Mongolian Empire? Or those who lived amid the plague? Or hundreds of years ago on the Chinese coast, during an era where multiple massive tsunami's hit the people of certain cities repeatedly during the same lifetime (for those who survived the first one)? Or those who lived in the North American continent upon arrival of European? Or when we faced the threat of possible nuclear annihilation, even just from the risk of testing (not to say that's necessarily over)? Perhaps we do need more luck than ever, or miracles, as you've put it. Or, perhaps we just need different miracles. I don't know if that's measurable. I can only say that it is normal for us humans, based on historical writings and the words of today, both, to feel like our time is the end of the world.
Humans Get Tired
What Is Is
.
Strength fades slow
more history
than future, waiting
for once hoped,
the once dreamed.
.
Each life is overflowing
with a different miracle.
Bemoaned and celebrated;
better as a value moved,
transcendental to now
and real. We can dream
and plan. A human
talent.
.
We are sharing in all
things miraculous. Watch.
There we go.
.
...a
.
Very beautiful words. A
Very beautiful words.
A question for you, that your writing here brought out of me: Do you suppose that our ability to "hope and dream" has benefited or been maleffected by the knowledge we've successfully passed down through the generations?