The Poetry of Deep Ecology

General
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Hey, all. For the last couple of years, I’ve been inviting people at DE workshops and forums to share their favourite poems that speak to them of deep ecology. Then I’ve been curating these around the spiral of the work that reconnects, and adding a few of mine and/or my favourites. Please feel free to add your own (fave, or written by you), and I’ll throw one in from time to time as well. Also, share your views on which of those posted are your favourites and, more importantly, why?

To get started, one I use often in workshops (Seeing with New Eyes) is Lost by David Wagoner:

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost.

Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

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Hi all. I was at John’s Deep Ecology retreat last weekend in Narara.
These are two short meditations on Breathing with the Trees that struck me on my morning walk on a windy day and whilst walking to local bush regen.

PASS IT ON

I breathe in from this tree.
And I breathe out to that tree.
Pass it on!

We don’t own anything.
We borrow it and then we give it back.
Our breath.
Our money.
Our house.
Our bodies.

Nothing is permanent.
Pass it on!

TANTRA

Breathing into one another.
As I breathe out, you breathe in.
As I breathe in, you breathe out.

A delicious, sensual coupling.
Oh tree! Let us merge.
How I love you so!

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So good! Mary Oliver is one of my all-time favourites - she is very often read at DE events. This one I associate with Coming from Gratitude:

The place I want to get back to

The place I want to get back to

is where

in the pinewoods

in the moments between

the darkness

and first light

two deer

came walking down the hill

and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,

this one is okay,

let’s see who she is

and why she is sitting

on the ground like that,

so quiet, as if

asleep, or in a dream,

but, anyway, harmless;

and so they came

on their slender legs

and gazed upon me

not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look

and look and look

into the faces of the flowers;

and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life

bring to me that could exceed

that brief moment?

For twenty years

I have gone every day to the same woods,

not waiting, exactly, just lingering.

Such gifts, bestowed,

can never be repeated.

If you want to talk about this

come to visit. I live in the house

near the corner, which I have named

Gratitude.

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I love this thread, folks! And @AndrewP - welcome, good sire!

I have a poem I wrote a while back I thought I might throw into the mix - it’s called river sage.. I thought I’d share :slightly_smiling_face:

on and on a river flows
not here nor there
but everywhere
can you see it?
your nature, in nature

wrinkled wisdom
laps the surface
the mottled reflection
of a million expressions
evergreen to the moment

at its depths
still it moves
it moves to be still
a silent calm
and serene surrender

sitting at the shore
we’re all the same
our lives a river
all we have to do
is remember

-- river sage

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Love this! There’s no better image of impermanency within permanency - and vice versa! - than a river. Ok, so I should share one of mine. This happened at a DE workshop recently.

patrick

i had things to say

things to do in the world

except that

everything had stopped

and inside that, i too, stopped

because you invited me, friend

to be with bella luna

Earth in the sky above us, but where?

how is Earth from the moon?

blue-and-white jewel, five moons wide

set in diamond-specked obsidian

constant in change

changeless in constancy;

can you imagine the love

moon-beings hold for Earth?

the ever-present centre of their sky?

oh Earth, i cannot turn my face from you

you fill my sky, you fill my mind, you fill my heart

centred always, you are my only love

we together, held always in celestial embrace

washed in each other’s tender, reflected light

oh Mother, my Earth, my love

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David Whyte is another favourite of mine amongst the DE poets. Even though this one deals with grief, I place it under the heading ‘Seeing with New Eyes’, as I love the reframing it does. What do you think? Shorter is sometimes better!

The Well of Grief – David Whyte

Those who will not slip beneath

the still surface on the well of grief

turning down through its black water

to the place we cannot breathe

will never know the source from which we drink

the secret water cold and clear

nor find in the darkness glimmering

the small round coins

thrown by those who wished for something else.

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What a lovely thought! The moon appears to be constantly changing to us, but the earth would seem changeless to moonlings (though it would twirl on its axis! … and go through phases)

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I did mention I’m obsessed with Luna (otherwise known as the Moon), right?

luna

without you

things close in upon themselves

furled

and enfolded in the soul’s utter dark

waiting

for encounter

yet some things pass

secret messages

silent gifts

here is my scent

come, feel the texture of my skin

if i have hands

i will use them

to imagine your form

my face i will press

to test your give

what kind are you?

stone, flesh, fur, bark?

how will we find the things we share?

then, you come

your fingers reach out

through the spaces in between space;

with what care you brush your love

onto the surfaces of things -

resolving us

marking our presence in the world

and all these things here

vibrate at your touch

can’t you see how we glow?

oh Luna, don’t you hear our contented hum

as we shiver in quiet ecstasy

brushed with your love?

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Hi all! First, apologies for having my head elsewhere in recent weeks. I’m going on a writing retreat at Gaia Forest (Dorrigo area) through July, so will come back with plenty of new material in August. Best in the meantime, Philip