We’re at the beginning of a
Radical Depopulation of the earth.²
We put the mountains in the valleys, the
Oceans in the deserts—and pave the world Flat—³
We want to scrub the planet of this disease
Called Life—and enjoy a nice, clean Rock.⁴
Generations have trod have trod have trod,
And all is seared with trade, bleared, smeared with Toil,
And wears man’s Smudge, and shares man’s Smell: the Soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.⁵
Isn’t the earth our Mother—isn’t it
We who bring this Terror upon her?⁶
It’s not from the earth our Sickness comes—
We know who the Enemy is:⁷
Human Wrong is in the cause—
Human Ruin is in the effect.⁸
The Poetry of the
Earth: it could Cease!⁹
Our children ask: “Why did you do Nothing as
The world was Dying?” “It is now the End
Of Everything,” our children will say …¹⁰
¹ Bell Hooks, Appalachian Elegy 4
² George Oppen, Route
³ Alan Dugan, On the Liquidation of Zoology
⁴ Alan Watts, Hypnosis and Habituation
⁵ Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
⁶ Denise Levertov, Urgent Whisper
⁷ Eugène Guillevic tr. Denise Levertov, There Shall Always Be, in Autumn
⁸ Wendell Berry, The Slip
⁹ Katharine Coles, Poems 2.0
¹⁰ Maurya Simon, Omnicide