FIRE AND ROCK AND WATER AND AIR
On the point of the spray and the push of the tide,
I rock in a mystery, speaking and whole,
On hardness and softness and wildness I ride,
Like the rockweed that rocks in your undersea coil.
Fire and rock and water and wind,
sun and earth and ocean and air.
In the center of sunlight, I am coming true;
In the pulling of ripples, I’m there.
I answer your heart with me, my heart with you,
In the balance of waiting and air,
Fire and rock and water and wind,
sun and earth and ocean and air.
Like the rockweed that rocks in your undersea coil,
Halfway between ocean and rock, I divide.
I rock in a mystery, speaking and whole,
On hardness and softness and wildness I ride.
Fire and rock and water and wind,
sun and earth and ocean and air.
Through upper and lower worlds, body and soul
The hardness and softness, the wetness and roil,
I rock in a mystery, speaking and whole,
Like the rockweeds that rock in your undersea coil.
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EARTH DAY
All we want is to find the love
in the faces of the people we love.
All we need is to find the dark
in the nighttime sky, to lie down to sleep
in the darkness, where stars and moon keep vigil,
in the silence of a sleeping earth.
All we require is to wake to sunlight
in the morning, to simple sky,
to breathe aloud as the sky is breathing,
to drink the water of the earth.
All we need is to touch the planet
and find it clean where we were born,
where our ancestors breathed and planted,
where we live with the plants and birds.
All we need is to live with the memory
of a future we want to imagine.
All we want is to find the love
in the face of the planet we love.
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THIS LAND
I went walking in the land of our heart,
I found the animals crying.
Their mouths and warm bodies were sudden and slow
And they moved slow and hard to the edge of the woods.
Their legs and their heartbeats and skins were dying.
They curled up like snails at the end of the world.
This land is your land, this land is my land.
As I went out walking, the trees became bark.
They turned in their power and knowledge and pain.
Their arms grew wide open, their lives fell apart.
I heard them in peace and I heard them in horror,
And each leaf or hand was the eye of a world.
This land is your land, this land is my land.
As I went walking by the side of the sea,
I found the waves understanding.
They rolled out of silence and into the mist,
And into the light where it seemed they were pouring.
They roiled with pollution and anger and love,
And the currents of freedom kept rolling.
This land is your land, this land is my land.
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Copyright © 2012 by Annie Finch. All rights, including electronic, are reserved by the author.
Eco-poems by
Annie Finch: Fire and rock and water and air ; earth day ;This land
Poet, editor, critic, and translator Annie Finch is the author of five books of poetry, including Eve; Calendars; Among the Goddesses and Spells: New and Selected Poems. Annie's poetry has been featured on Def Poetry Jam, National Public Radio and Voice of America, and in leading journals and anthologies -- most recently The Penguin Book of Twentiesth-Century American Poetry. A graduate of Yale University with a doctorate from Stanford University, Annie is the author of numberous books about poetry, including Villanelles (a Garrson Keillor holiday gift selection), An Exaltation of Forms, and most recently A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry. Her awards and honors include the Robert Fitzgerald Award, the Sarasvati Award and fellowships from the Black Earth Institute and Stanford Humanities Center. She's a columnist at The Huffington Post on spiritual topics and is currently at work on a new book of poetry and a memoir entitled "American Witch."