My annual earth day poem:
Have I thanked you leaves?
Have I thanked you leaves
For springing forth unerringly
Covering with bright green sleeves
Your winter hardened twiggery,
Re-charged with chlorophyllic potency?
Have I fully come to realize all my senses
Sniffing the sweet aromatic atmosphere
Of Robinnia, Rosaceae, camaldulensis,
Re-framing mental arches with wisteria
Countering with cyclic antidote – the widespread hysteria?
Have I thrown my inner windows open yet
To the new bird songs longing for renewal
Their dulcet tones a balm to bomb and jet,
Recognizing the seasonal resilience as accrual
Far more valuable to resolve all nature-cheating threats?
Have I consciously reclaimed the link my footsteps daily make
With soil and continental crust and elemental ground;
Have I reflected on the leafy source of every breath I gaily take
Or on the shared inhales we all exchange-so oxy-genetically bound
Have I thanked us all as part of earth and air and universal sound?
-jhaffur khan azad darakth, earth day, 2016
Jeffrey Y Campbell
Manager, Forest and Farm Facility (FFF)
FAO -Forestry Department, Room D-424
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00153 Rome, Italy
Tel.: +39 -06 57054530 office, +39 3351977349 mobile
www.fao.org/partnerships/forest-farm-facility