The Full Moon after Earth Day

April words and wishing you a beautiful moon

Music for the Garden on Earth Day. Photo by Kenneth Bachor

Yesterday was Earth Day, and we gathered together in the Elizabeth Street Garden for an evening of music, poetry, and honoring of the Earth. So many people showed up! A warm hearted crowd - patient and peaceful. I was so happy to host our group of readers and musicians, everyone sharing poems inspired by and connected to nature.

I wanted to read one piece of my own, but the wind had blown my pages off the music stand, and without knowing the order or being able to decipher it quickly, we played a song instead. It worked out nicely after all, and I told the crowd I would share a recording of these words, in case anyone would like to know what the papers had said.

So here they are now, a morning reflection from April 23, 2014. That year Arbor Day was on April 24, so with this day between that and Earth Day, it felt like a day somehow suspended in time, allowing for the integration of new thoughts, to plant new seeds for action and compassion. An ordinary day in the cycle of life.

---

APRIL, 2014

April as this time is called

is also known as

Poetry Month and Earth Month.

Today is April 23,

An ordinary day

nestled between Earth Day and Arbor Day,

And in a busy city mid the river streams,

we celebrate

Nature and verse, 

under the umbrella of 

Spring.

Poetry Month and Earth Month

may seem to be themes in distance,

but they partner up so effortlessly,

and it seems a bit ideal that April would be

the month deemed the one for Poetry. 

-

With the coming of Spring,

the planet quietly jubilates in

a time of awakening and new ideas.

This cycle lives deeply within you and me,

A ritual for all living things,

reminding us how interconnected we always are.

New life of chlorophyll emerges

from the limbs of the world's trees

as new oxygen cools the air – 

roots have been mingling below the floor

and give us their first signs of green

What is the root of the word? Where did it stem from?

leaves who have died are memorialized

by the growth of new ones in their place

animals emerge from their hibernation, 

almost ready to begin afresh

the groundwork and foundation ever evolving

ever cycling, again and again

it never stops, nothing ever truly stops -

and though we may not have slept through all of winter

It can often be agreed 

it would be difficult not to excite

in the blossoming of returning flowers

or the sun's warm brightness returning to the eyelids

It's good to be reawakened in the arrival of spring

inspiration renewed

body recharged

a shedding of layers 

new hope, new energy, new ideas, 

A buzzing commotion emanates from the land

breathes electric life into the body of each living thing

the sun and rainfall feeding

the vibration resonating 

shared in the songs of spring birds

and the delicate hum of an azalea in bloom

the harmony of all life

coexisting with the breath of the day

captured and channeled throughout the planet

admired and shared 

by the human observer 

through the great blessed gift of the word,

of the poem. 

Our sacred channel

of cosmic and earthly delights.

-

So as the rain falls on the rooftop

on this spring night

and I find myself mesmerized by its chaotic

rhythms

I am stirred with the memories of those we have

lost in the physical realm

who maybe would have loved to see one more Spring

or perhaps were agonized by the associations

and unplaceable nostalgia

of the season's change

pushed too far by the expectations of a sunny day

held captive pretending to mind the wind.

-

Nature moves in and out like the waves of the voice

the shore of the ocean

your breath and my blood

the mystic word impossible to hold

the gifts we cannot see.

Even when printed in a favorite book

The word will live solely mixing memory and desire

until you imagine a spring rain -

And the drops roll lowly on the page

the ancient ink starts to run towards itself

and so you can touch the intangible word

become one with its molecules

and ground the wildness of imagination.

-

Absolved from winter's darkness

coming into light

those of us who remain here feel the transformation,

revel and agonize in the transfiguration

of those who have departed 

and we hold language like space

breathing words into the ether

clutching the page of the book

reciting the poem like oxygen

remembering a loved one

or a tree long since gone

and for a moment we can feel them within us

as though they never left.

Truly and without doubt

They never did.

so as we reside here today

Nestled together

under the umbrella of Spring,

let us be reminded

of the power of the world

and the power of the word.

April 23, 2014

---

Tens years later and I’m both sad and happy about where we are. Happy about what we’re doing, and sad like we all are about the state of our world. Gatherings like yesterday remind us though that we are all still here, that we all still care. <3

I walked outside tonight just to see the moon, and I couldn’t believe how bright and mighty it looked - like you could walk off the Earth and step onto it like a river stone. Did you get to see the moon? I’ll wish you a full moon in the Chat and you can share your pictures with me. :) Have a great night and have a great day, no matter what day you’re reading this, and no matter where you are. <3