Poem from page 54 in the online book Nature ~ IO: Let’s Survive, Not Die! Read online the PDF version (Computers & Smartphones) for free here: https://www.nature-iq.com/download/NatureIQ%20ebook1.pdf
Mother Earth: living our human way
letting go of the metaphorical mother
some people metaphorically call earth
mother, as in “Mother Earth”
or even in a more broader
all-encompassing sense, “ Mother Nature”
now in Greek mythology
this mother nature was called, “Gaia”
no matter what analogy used
for some, the earth is portrayed
as if to be the giver and sustainer of life ~
well if I may say so,
as a mother,
as a mother
like my real mother,
the earth as a mother
falls miserably short in the comparison
‘cause my mother, although
genetically embodied
and socially embedded with human frailty
as a mom and a woman who has faced head on
many ills and obstacles set before her in life
as the mom who helped give me life
as the mom who helped sustain my life
who never, ever once allowed anything
affect or after undergoing the effect
of conditions thrust upon her
either directly or indirectly done to her
never, ever altered her role
as the giver and sustainer of my life
my mother has never, ever once
tried to bring harm to me or to
those daughters and sons of other mothers
my mother is a hero, even before
I realized she would earn
such an honor beholden to my eyes
being felt way more
than some archetype of mind
emotionalized within my heart
oh mother earth, mother nature
the one known as this goddess Gaia,
I can’t realistically or genuinely say or feel
nor conceptualize metaphorically
even begin to compare my Mother
my Mom or my Grandmother
as if ~ somehow ~ similar with you
however oh earth, well as if
you could actually hear and listen to me
I’ve come to know all too well
not only subjectively,
but objectively, I need to understand you
conceptualize beyond
the metaphors cast upon and over you
I must lift off the veil that shrouds
your role, your purpose, your function
within the scheme of all else
if not only for me, my children
and their children
also for humanity as a species
to be able to go on living
for us humans to be able to sustain
and preserve our kind into the future
I must see you naked before me
the best I humanly can
without predisposition
being entrapped, ensnared
by any analogy, symbolism or belief
subtly fogging, biasing
or impeding my judgment
as to clearly seeing, perceiving
and fully envisioning
what you are now or may come to be
whether as to your worth
or out of mere necessity to detach from you
~ oh earth, despite your changes
uncovered in the past or yet to happen
even if drastically disruptive changes
that may occur within or upon you
like rapid and destabilizing climate change,
with violent weather, as well as global plagues,
super-volcanoes or killer asteroids from the sky,
earthquakes or tsunamis
or human born nuclear war or terrorism ~
even the arrival of unfriendly extraterrestrials, etc.
I hold no malice or blame against you
for you know not what you do
as a planet or portion that is only a sub-system
a dynamic part of a whole system
undergoing complex activities
the holomovement as explained by Bohm,
recurrent patterns of process
energy/matter
unfolding and enfolding
interacting, interconnecting
and being interdependent as
the living and the nonliving
the animate and the inanimate
as manifested in the physical reality
which comprises in its totality ~ Nature
nor earth, as I learn about you
and all else as aspects within Nature
do I hold any malice for or blame
against my kind, the humankind
‘cause we evolved upon you through survival
sheer willpower we used, even while dying
no manual or guidebook to follow
only living and trying
by way of self-production, variation
cooperation and adaptation
eventually, attempting to pass on
information in the form of
knowledge and wisdom
as much as what was learned
from our struggle within thought
comprehended or imagined along the way
to survive, we’ve had to move on,
regardless of the happenings of the past
and yes at times,
in spite of how things were
may have seemingly always been
we’ve had to let go of
our metaphors
traditions, our symbolism
and our beliefs held so tightly
with all their comforts
we’ve left them behind, forever
as nothing but memories of our past
~
yes one day, oh Mother Earth,
Mother Nature, the Greek goddess Gaia
the regulator of our human lives
even though,
in a metaphorically sense
you are a poor
and inadequate mother to the humankind
holding us captive to your systemic ways
if humanity is going to survive, go on
we’ll have to free ourselves
partially or wholly from your
archetypical bondage
like any loving mother
you’ll have to let us use our wings
to fly among and throughout the stars
that expanded environment of Nature’s totality holding out hope
within the human mind
at present littered with inhibition and guilt
you must completely without remorse
let us go ~
so finally we’ll more fully learn
from the opportunity of having the chance
to move about unencumbered,
as an embryonic child
detached at birth from the mother’s womb
after cutting the tie of the umbilical cord
casting behind once and for all
the hindrance preventing us ~
limiting us from living our human way
Words by ~Keith Alan Hamilton~
Image property of ~Keith Alan Hamilton~ All rights reserved