Our delight on My Body and Soul

By Filomena Baker

Even after we’ve destroyed ourselves over a refusal to view ourselves as one with each other and the Earth, it will never truly die. There’s something greater than ourselves, below us at all times.

Though we are both suffering, 
I do not regret the power I have given you
Because when you eventually die
I will still be here,
healing,
when you're long gone. 
“Ha. Ha.”

But I do not want to succeed 
at the detriment
of Life

I do not want to succeed.
Do You Want 
to lose?
Like all the others, 
Before? 

Because:
Think of the future
Of You and I,
Of how long We can swerve
Of how far We can dive
Together
With this chance to share
Our delights and amazements
On My Body and Soul
Of My Body and Soul.

We can be a Type 1 Energy Civilization. 

Democratize me! 

Process

During the Writing Works Industry Workshop “Earth Day with Twitter: Poetry for Our Planet,” put in a breakout room and told to write a poem about climate change, I thought of what I wanted to write. I think the most interesting concept about our relationship with our planet, is just its sheer size and life force. It’s been around billions of years, and we’ve been around hundreds of thousands. I wanted to explore the squashing of our egos, that we’re stripping away its agency. The power it has over us, lulling us into think we’re its masters when we’re more like an unruly child, offered the chance to talk about its feelings for once. When we’re gone, the Earth has billions of years to heal and recover, but we won’t. We have one chance to do this right, and I thought it would be fun to personify that sheer power, knowledge, and teetering yearning of watching us fail. I also thought it was interesting to view the Earth as a form of higher power, though not directly spoken in the poem. To imply a ‘higher power’ found in some religions, and imply that the religious respect given to such beings be given to our Earth as well.