Earth Day

On this day
the first of new days
clearer than the old ones
on this day of the earth
I feel the beat of the pulse
of a dark woman in the south
who is sowing a corn
into the ground of her prison

On this bright-dark morning
when the sun rises
above the old planet
like the first time
I hear in the east
the first cry of a new born child
to whom the earth will rise
from our hands

On this glimmering noon
when the light strikes straight
the treetops and our heads
I know in the west
children learning from roots,
waters and delphins

In this evening
which is not the death of the day
but the laughter of the first star
on this festive evening leisure
drums carry to me
the news of a new dance:
in the north a white man
at a fire of military plans
begins to jump over his shadow

In this night
the first of new nights
which turn the earth' eclipse
in this night of the earth
the moon rises as a germinating corn
all stars are sown
into our hearts
and in the cosmic darkness
this dawning planet
begins to gleam
by the seed
of our
resisting hope

Birgit Berg

©Wortwerkstatt Poesie & Politik
birgitberg@bigfoot.de