Today on the EcoFaith Recovery blog is a poem by leader Glee Lumb. The inspiration for the poem is:
I wrote it all at once as I followed my children through OMSI last week. Having spent the summer visiting and understanding the origins of hydroelectric, oil for fuel, and a return to “right relationship”, it felt like a culmination in the tradition of Quaker ministry.
Museum of Science & Industry
Falling, falling, eagle is landing,
Gravity swings a pendulum in the heart of grandfather time.
Ticking little pieces, splinter nine months into one,
Frozen embryos waiting to be born.
Miraculous mechanical mysteries,
A spinning whirling dervish of industrial delight.
We the people wanted power for industrial creation,
So we harnessed a river to move some gears to grind the flour.
Harmless.
In some places, it was donkeys or horses, gravity, or steam.
Power, energy, fire, harmless.
Life was so hard…cleaning clothes, cooking and preserving food,
Heating homes in cold places. So, lesser humans did the work.
Hard work, horrible, hard work for free, …no place for me,
No place for me up there.
Set her free and help her babies, more than three…babies, babies,
harmless, like me. Make more power. More babies, more food, more
houses, more clothing, more time…got to keep it all going.
Harmless.
Not just light to light the darkness, now there are waves repeating,
repeating all day long. Refrigerator, stove, cable cars, plug me in!!
Harmless.
Hospitals, fire department, telephones, help us, help us, help us.
More survive, more for longer, healthier lives, harmless, harmless,
harmless.
Where fire smoke choked the air, now smog, heat, and acid rain,
beautiful sunsets, airplane rides, exotic foods, and internet brides.
If we could choose, we’d do it again, and again.
See more, feel more, live more, know more.
More for me, and those like me. Chemical madness.
More drugs, less bugs, less hugs.
Harmless.
Demand progress, supply and demand, and curiosity.
Magnets, static, angry wind.
All God’s power, made by men.
Marie Curie, her night light rocks
So long before a cancer cure, fission fusion essence of life,
A cell divides, divided cells, bombing pieces, into peace,
You are she, and they, and it. Life is here and now it’s gone.
Gone gone, gone beyond, beyond the beyond,
in the refuge of the Walrus. All of us together,
Splitting, and splicing new life to save a life.
Save so many lives. More lives saved.
More.
Harmless.
Whale oil, Moby Dick, matching might, for light. More light.
Perfume, a story about smelling good. Your smell, we stole your smell!
Your oil, your fat for that. Only for that. Oil, precious oil, miracle of oil,
Divine holy oil. Holy war, blood for oil.
Her blood’s not blood, but rotting life deep below.
Carbon carbon everywhere,
Breathing out this breath of life, and in and out,
Through this damn respirator, close to death,
Plugged in to life support.
Even brain death cannot bring me closer to heaven.
Kerosene oil, coal from the depths, alchemic joules.
My blue ridge mountains take me home to light the sacrificial flame
of our resistance.
In the wilderness, we are tempted to return again and again to shop and
carry, swagger and sparkle, just to make a buck. Walk on the wild side,
walk on by, my curious heart lookin’ for love in all the wrong places.
Big city delight, up all night, a life on stage, on the screens,
and glossy pages. Got a job, money, a friend, a flat, even an exotic cat.
Anything money can buy, anything, everything, my heart’s desire.
Harmless. Harmless desire.
Make enough to meet demand. We supply, we demand.
So much light, it fills the sky, where pop stars live on Mars,
Making food from synthetic dreams that feed on fear, trail of tears.
Oceans of tears. Twenty years of tears,
A holy war beckons end of times, a revelation born in the desert
Under starry starry night.
So beautiful. So calm and bright.
Silent silence on the right and silence on the left.
Somewhere in the middle is a place where heaven and Earth collide at the
speed of light. Stop time, stop in time, step in time with Shiva’s dance,
across the universe, and on and on. I love you.
I love you so much, my beautiful child. My beautiful harmless child.
+++++
Glee is a Quaker and artist. If you’re intersted in Glee’s artwork check out http://gleebeans.com
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