Ballad of Mother Earth

Some classmates asked me to post this, so I am.  As I sit back and watch the destruction of our dear planet, I can't help but sympathize with the Earth.  Since there was an Earth, it has taken care of us and what do we do?  Like spoiled children, we mess it up.  So I wrote a poem about it for a statement video I did last quarter.  Wanna hear it?  Here it go...


(keep in mind, I am a PHOTOGRAPHER not a poet, so please be kind)

Ballad of Mother Earth

Why are you hurting me?
Can't you see that I am a mother?
I nurture and care for my offspring as you would
I protect my own as only a mother could.


I have nothing but love for you
I give all of my being to see you flourish
I provide all for my children
And food for you to nourish


Everything I do is a cycle
Birth, death, embrace, mourn
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
A return so that a new can be born


I provide shelter for you
I cradle you in my hills and valleys
caves and seas
I warm you, shade you
My atmosphere covers you
And gives you oxygen to breathe


Three hundred sixty five rotations
Three hundred sixty five sunrises and sunsets
Twelve lunar phases
Four seasons
One revolution
One Earth, one Me


I cover you with my clouds
and shower you with the essential element
I keep the perfect temperature like no other
My branches protect you from the rays
that will hurt you my child
Because I am yours, I am a mother


I gladly give you my skin of soil
Rich, dark reds and browns
To grow food in your fields
The strength of my breath
pushes sails and powers towns
Cleanses the air in order to heal


I am heaven's divine entity
I hold you near to me with my gravity
I sweat rivers that carry you to and fro
Clear my skies at night so the stars cal glow
My magnetic field captivates
your compasses, so my seas you are able to navigate


No other place in the universe
can take care of my children the way that I do 
and I wouldn't have it any other way
You are mine and I am yours
I am your mother since Creation
and forever til that final day


So why are you hurting me?
What have I done?
Your trash is giving me a rash
Can't you see that I'm in misery?


Your poison is crippling me
You amputate me,
decapitate me,
defile me, exploit me


You kill your sister and brother
fellow children of mine
For sport, or fashion or whatever other selfish reason
You don't reason like you were created to


You race to be the first to rob me 
of the resources that I give to you freely
You gut me out, rearrange my face
Rape me, bruise me, deplete me
Is that how you were raised?


You've given me fever
I'm sick, choking, I can't breathe
I'm getting weak
from the draining of the oil in my seams


I'm bleeding, toppled over in pain
Sneezing, wheezing, spewing vomit like hard rain
Congested, constipated and steadily becoming lame
There is no heartache like that from your own seed
So won't you please stop?  Please?


Photosynthesis
Won't you think of this?
As you pierce my ozone like Swiss?
The fact that it was created for you, you dismiss


Billions of years, millions of tears
thousands of lifetimes, hundreds of fears
I have been able to rebound
But not this time
For this may be it, my Dear
For me, the end is drawing near


Therefore, I have no choice but to protect myself
Heal myself and purge myself
of the cancer that is trying to destroy me
You are my children and I am wary
But I've got to do it for the sake of being
For there is no you without me


If you stop afflicting me, I will forgive you
and naturally heal the both of us
and our family too
I will restore us back
to the way it designed
Back on track, all in line


We are mother and child
Don't you see?
I belong to you and you to me
Since the beginning, til the end
Because I love you, forever maternally


Ta-Tanisha Browne  2010