In Praise of the Earth by John O'Donohue

In Praise of the Earth

Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth.
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.

And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.

When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.

Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.

Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.

The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed’s self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.

The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.

The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.

Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.

Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.

That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.

~ John O’Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)

Happy 51st Earth Day with Earthrise by Amanda Gorman

The following poem by Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda Gorman was read from stage at the Los Angeles Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training on Tuesday, August 28, 2018. You can view Amanda reciting the poem with this YouTube video.

Our Purpose in Poetry:

Or, Earthrise

Dedicated to Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project 

On Christmas Eve, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders 

Snapped a photo of the earth

As Apollo 8 orbited the moon.

Those three guys 

Were surprised

To see from their eyes

Our planet looked like an earthrise

A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon, 

with deep oceans and silver skies. 

It was our world’s first glance at itself 

Our first chance to see a shared reality, 

A declared stance and a commonality; 

A glimpse into our planet’s mirror,

And as threats drew nearer,

Our own urgency became clearer,

As we realize that we hold nothing dearer 

than this floating body we all call home. 

We’ve known

That we’re caught in the throes

Of climactic changes some say

Will just go away,

While some simply pray

To survive another day;

For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor, 

Who when the disaster

Is declared done,

Still suffer more than anyone. 

Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time, 

Of this, you’re certainly aware.

It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you

From knowing an inconvenient fact, because

It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait. 

So I tell you this not to scare you, 

But to prepare you, to dare you 

To dream a different reality, 

Where despite disparities

We all care to protect this world,

This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel 

To muster the verve and the nerve

To see how we can serve

Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician

To make it your mission to conserve, to protect, 

To preserve that one and only home

That is ours,

To use your unique power

To give next generations the planet they deserve. 

We are demonstrating, creating, advocating 

We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient

With the future of our youth. 

And while this is a training,

in sustaining the future of our planet, 

There is no rehearsal. The time is 

Now

Now

Now, 

Because the reversal of harm,

And protection of a future so universal 

Should be anything but controversial. 

So, earth, pale blue dot 

We will fail you not. 

Just as we chose to go to the moon 

We know it’s never too soon

To choose hope.

We choose to do more than cope 

With climate change 

We choose to end it—

We refuse to lose.

Together we do this and more

Not because it’s very easy or nice

But because it is necessary,

Because with every dawn we carry

the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star. 

And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down, 

But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready, 

Because an environmental movement of this size 

Is simply another form of an earthrise. 

To see it, close your eyes.

Visualize that all of us leaders in this room

and outside of these walls or in the halls, all

of us changemakers are in a spacecraft,

Floating like a silver raft

in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.

We relish the view;

We witness its round green and brilliant blue,

Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:

What can we do?

Open your eyes.

Know that the future of

this wise planet

Lies right in sight:

Right in all of us. Trust

this earth uprising.

All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before

For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core, 

To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for. 

For Earth Day: In Praise of the Earth by John O'Donohue

In Praise of the Earth

Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth.
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.

And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.

When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.

Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.

Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.

The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed’s self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.

The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.

The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.

Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.

Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.

That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.

~ John O’Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)