O Earth

I am of thee

your beauty 

your wondrous mystery

is the beauty and mystery

of me

your pain

unbearable

is mine

your life blood sucked

your waters poisoned

your air fouled

your skin paved over

concrete spreading like a cancer

your very vibrational field disturbed

your creatures dying

your ice caps melting

your temperature rising

like a fever

Our mutual love is suffering

It is me

the multitude of me

It is not you

forever generous and faithful

How can I live with myself?

How can we live?

Shall I live like a king?

think only of my comfort

satisfying my greed

exercising my white privilege

in arrogance?

Shall I lord it over you?

Shall I fly through your skies 

like a maniac

like Ikaros

or am I truly done with this?

Certainly you are the stronger! 

Your strength is awesome

you will destroy me

before I truly destroy you

I am but a feather

I am of thee

I depend on thee

you sustain me

how I wish to serve you

to love you back

you communicate

all I need to know

about living with you

healing, positive life force

regeneration

I listen

I feel, I smell, I touch

I see

I am of thee

Anne wrote and illustrated this poem at a workshop led by Jana Laiz at the 2018 Earth Expo in Dalton MA.

Anne Legêne is a musician, educator, mother and grandmother. She grew up in the Netherlands in a family of musicians, who instilled in her early on a deep respect and love for nature. She moved to the Berkshires in 1985 to escape the overwhelming urbanization and to live surrounded by nature. She teaches cello at her home studio and at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, where she also conducts the chamber orchestra. She performs on cello and viola da gamba in the Berkshires and beyond. Anne gardens, cooks macrobiotic food, and has a passion for learning pottery.