Hymn to Earth

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This poem started with a mother oak tree on my campus that was cut down during my freshman year (not the same tree pictured here lol), and from there it torpedoed into this piece about death and beliefs. Dying is this inescapable thing, it's the one thing that ties us all together, it was my thought process throughout the writing and editing of this poem. I read in a book, The Hidden Life of Trees, that when trees are dying the other trees around the dying tree will send it nutrients to help nurse it back to health and will continue to do so even after the tree is dead. When I first read it I thought of the mother oak tree on my campus and wondered if all her seedlings were still sending her nutrients, falsely keeping her alive. It also made me think of how people cling to anything that’ll keep the memory of their loved one(s) alive, and all the various ways in which people cope with death and grief through religion, it’s all very interesting to me, what we choose to believe in, what we choose not to believe in, if we believe in anything at all, I tried to touch on that in this poem.

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Hymn to Earth

you pray to god

beyond the sky, beyond the sun

so far away from what you know

begging on your hands and knees

for him to fix the things you won't

never reaping what you sow

i pray to ground beneath the Earth

where roots entwine in silent mirth

my fingers soiled in their dirt

feel the pulse beneath my hand

among the roots of sacred land

i hug the trees and kiss their leaves

whisper lullabies to Earth

one day we’ll all be bound to sinning

no stone left unturned, but in 

the soil redemption is beginning 

to show us our worth, taking us to

where forgiveness lies and sin finds 

grace beneath the sun's eternal sway