In the midst of all the shouted lies that fog our public life these days, there is an unassailable fact, an “inconvenient truth.” The planet is heating up at an unprecedented rate. This is the third straight year of record-breaking heat.
It is the challenge that will not go away, the asteroid in our path, the fact that dwarfs all others. We quake between denial and despair, while scientists, engineers, and visionaries in all walks of life struggle with this fact.
In the face of it we must hold on to “yet.” As Martin Luther, when assailed by the demons that plagued his soul, would struggle to proclaim, “Trotzdem!” — Nevertheless!, so we must find that word anew as we struggle to find our way in this transformed world. Here’s how that word came to me this week.
O God,
you brought forth
so patiently
this world
over four billion
circlings of the sun
so carefully
this beautiful world.
And we,
longing for embrace
have raped it
for our pleasure
and our power.
Now it’s burning
like a red hot coal,
nowhere to walk
nowhere to swim.
The sky is sweating down on us
who dwell upon
its feverish skin.
Yet
and yet
even now
the shimmering swallowtail
sucks the nectar
from each blossom
in our garden
at the lowering sun
preparing for
the metamorphosis to come.
* * *
I’m so glad to hear this little poem found a liturgical home! Blessings for all of us on our journey.
Poetry will often do it better than prose. Your poem will find a place in our liturgy of the feast of St. Francis on Oct. 4, as we celebrate Francis’ embrace of nature. Ken Smits
Beautiful, sad, lilting, hopeful poem.
Enjoyed this poem, Bill. “And yet…” is often a sentiment of mine. Life is full of sustaining paradox….