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these are the ways of the earth

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introduction
to give a thing a name
is to understand the nature of that thing.
to understand the nature
of a thing is to know it intimately.
to know that thing intimately
is to discover its
true name.
1
she bled tonight,
blood with small bits of rock and steel
on to the ground, at the place where
caged and displayed and
aggressive in their labors,
men dwell.
she keened.
a cry above endurance
a terrible wordless howl
a noise of wounded animal
knowing that,
these are the ways of the earth:
to not wait, as we must, for the winter
to not consider the possibilities of its own birth.
to set plans in motions held by laws invisible to us.
to sufferer wound at the hand of her children
tospin in grand design constant in the palm of god.
to replenish and be replenished
to be beautiful, stained and forgiving.
and
it is our way to
stare at our own birth
weakly engaged through years,
walking through an unknown county
to an unknown end,
small mindless, beloved,
alone.
2
it is the ways of men
who live upon the earth
to name and destroy, and
and move in daylight circles.
rummage the river banks salvaging
the promises once used ascurrency
by the river struggling to serve
and be served.
giving names mean nothing
to streams and lands born
and aged before language.
but by his nature man must name
and direct and organize and destroy.
to destroy the nameless
leaves us bereft of history
destroying the named
salvages memory.
3
i would build here and live forever
to know completely how happy this
sad dark soil found you, to know
your sharp tools of pen and page and spade,
how you pulled from the ground poem,
trimmed the fat from slaughtered prayer
and fed us despite the earth's moaning.
i have begged you for verse,
one for each season that the long
trains rolled east. one for each hour
you stood and waited for your
breath toresume.
one for each wave reaching beyond the surf
wetting our feet.
what you had, you gave
and in its time they brought us peace.
it is the way of the earth,
to love in return, if loved.
4
two deep points of light
above the woods, a holy family,
a planet and the morning star,
a light to the kindness
of which the earth is full.
that passes above us,
holding fast our confessions,
holding fast our weak bodies
to the earth,
we are the crawling simple
explanation to an unbound love,
undeserved and often unrequited,
we look
with burnt eyes, at a fire the
stars can't quench,
the planets celebrate,
and we with our earthen voices,
trailing in the wind sing,
holy, holy holy.....
epilogue
it is the way of all things beneath the sun
to strive to be present the coming days.
yet we know that all things beneath the sun
perish.
i look in your eyes as son and daughter and know
that one day we'll be denied that loving
pleasure
until that day comes i will look deeply
for looking into love
is one the greatest ways of the earth.

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Poet 11586

these are the ways of the earth