Poetry Corner: Songs from the Planet

The daffodils came late
this year, whispering it’s okay
to wonder if the leaves
Will come. Maybe they were
waiting for the Planet’s music
like the rest of us, or
An invitation.

It’s not hard to imagine
the River listening
to the plaintive songs
and sad notes or babbling
Joy, or feel
footsteps dancing
on the neighboring earth
or the heroes and herons
angling for fish high
stepping among the rocks
where the current rolls

Upstream science tripped
up by math lies
belly up and bleeding
out it’s toxic rainbows, fuming
Death on the exhale
of America’s exhaustion

Still there is hope
in the mountains, snow
white, where the Wild
things are, pregnant
with water, the offspring
of clouds wrapped
in their lily-white shawls
covering swollen rivers
waiting to be born

Mighty Saint
Vrain, forgive us
Our trespasses there
are brighter rainbows
downstream, awaiting deeper
pools, shaped by the radii
of the spirit, reminders
of the majesty of God’s
green earth if only
we will remember
to listen

To last night’s songs
from the Planet, we sing
Thank you, neighbors, thank you
Sunshine for showing up
with your flashlight
in the darkness
to illuminate the path
home in your electric
chariot over the bridge
where the river murmurs
and the rainbows
pass through

This morning in the blue
bird sunlight
a miracle of crystal
clear music rang
from the cathedral
of the Planet again
built from strings and skins
and boxes and cymbals
and amplified voices singing
“because the world
is round it turns
me on, because
the wind is high it blows
my mind, love
is old love
is new” before retreating
into silence, leaving
only the gentle
Wind breathing
another day of life
into the flowering heart
of yesterday’s
daffodils
 
            ………………Ethan Marlatt, Lyons, April 2021