We are at the Beginning of a
Radical Depopulation of the Earth²
Isn’t the Earth our Mother – isn’t it
We who bring this Terror upon her?³
It’s not from the Earth our Sickness
Comes – we know who the Enemy is⁴
We put the Mountains in the Valleys, the
Oceans in the Deserts – and Pave the world Flat⁵
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 Shod⁶
We want to Scrub the planet of this Disease
Called Life – and enjoy a nice, clean Rock⁷
Our children ask “why did you do Nothing
As the world was Dying?” – “it’s now the
End of Everything,” our children will say⁸
The Poetry of the Earth: it could Cease⁹
Human Wrong is in the Cause –
Human Ruin is in the Effect¹⁰
¹ Bell Hooks, Appalachian Elegy 4
² George Oppen, Route
³ Denise Levertov, Urgent Whisper
⁴ Eugène Guillevic tr. Denise Levertov, There Shall Always Be, in Autumn
⁵ Alan Dugan, On the Liquidation of Zoology
⁶ Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
⁷ Alan Watts, Hypnosis and Habituation
⁸ Maurya Simon, Omnicide
⁹ Katharine Coles, Poems 2.0
¹⁰ Wendell Berry, The Slip