In which I do not try…#poetry #earthweal

I ask myself ‘is there ever a day
in which I do not try?’
Death and destruction 
famine and disease 
write the headlines
sell the stories.

The earth is reacting to all of our excess
one day may cleanse itself of all of us
it’s hard to deny, it’s all a mess
and yet is this a reason not to try

loving
hope
writing
poetry
living
momentarily 
learning 
to be changed?

One day will come the day
in which I do not try
all of these things
and that will simply mean
I’ve ceased to be
but do not worry:

Not the words themselves 
but the song of the words
the hope in the words
the love of every smallest thing
this and only this 
lives on in 
perpetuity.

© Experimentsinfiction 2021, All Rights Reserved

Sharing with earthweal

Brendan has given us the following challenge this week:

For this weekly challenge, write of EARTHCRAFT, that work of restoring earthly perfection through craft.

  • What is the nature of work and its perfection in craft.
  • How does a poetry of earth attempt that craft?
  • How is work changing, and what tools are there for keeping balance?
  • What can we learn from this work in nature, be it bee-craft or forest growth, whale song or wind-work?
  • If there an alchemy to earthcraft, what does its labors look like and what is the quinessence?

That sort of thing. Write of EARTHCRAFT.

In this poem I’ve tried to examine what the craft of poetry means to me.

25 thoughts on “In which I do not try…#poetry #earthweal

Add yours

  1. You certainly captured the essence of restoring earthly perfection through craft, Ingrid. I love the contrast of the evils of the world, death, destruction, famine and disease writing the headlines and selling the stories with the lovely list of reasons to try every day to make a change until we don’t have to try any more. I especially love these lines:
    ‘…the song of the words
    the hope in the words
    the love of every smallest thing
    this and only this
    lives on in
    perpetuity.’

  2. Yes – poetry is the workroom of earthcraft where we “learn” “to be changed” with constructions embodying love and hope and truth. Its difficulty is their possibility. A wonderful response to the challenge, Ingrid.

  3. Hope is why we live … so we shall keep hoping for our words to be heard …
    Although … sometimes I feel the futility in the finality of humans in this grubby world ..

  4. Be encouraged, there are those traits all around us. We just need to look deeper. Many emotions are stirred with this poem.

  5. “the love of every smallest thing” does indeed live on. Meanwhile we offer up our words to lift the heart, as your poem did mine. Thank you.

  6. This is lovely and captures it all so beautifully, the hope and the love and the precarious balancing act we live.

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