Thursday, April 16, 2009

Theme Thursday: Earth

Well, a lot's forgotten, isn't it, as much as is remembered . . . first Earth Day spent in western New England at the ends of, well, the earth itself. That is what it was, my parents having flung us up there from deepest Long Island. Perched up above, looking out at the smoke coming from the commune across the little mountain range. You could see their little buses and yurts, if you looked hard enough. My mother in her element, though. Dirt road out front. That wind against the neck, waiting for the schoolbus. Making the garden, that's no longer there. No hiding this time.

A Physics
–Heather McHugh

When you get down to it, Earth
has our own great ranges
of feeling—Rocky, Smoky, Blue—
and a heart that can melt stones.

The still pools fill with sky,
as if aloof, and we have eyes
for all of this—and more, for Earth's
reminding moon. We too are ruled

by such attractions—spun and swaddled
rocked and lent a light. We run
our clocks on wheels, our trains
on time. But all the while we want

to love each other endlessly—not only for
a hundred years, not only six feet up and down.
We want the suns and moons of silver
in ourselves, not only counted coins in a cup. The whole

idea of love was not to fall. And neither was
the whole idea of God. We put him well
above ourselves, because we meant,
in time, to measure up.




23 comments:

Ronda Laveen said...

You got that straight, baby. Only, now, I think i am lucky to remember as much as I for get. Great TT.

Brian Miller said...

mmmm....nice post. happy TT.

JGH said...

Love your memory of your first Earth Day "up from deepest Long Island".

Baino said...

I really like the idea that the earth carries our own range of feelings. Excellent work Toots! Shame the garden is no longer there.

Candie said...

Nice one Tut-tut!;)

Roy said...

Your mother and I must be kindred spirits; I, too, am in my element when I'm way out in the woods (or in the middle of a salt marsh, or walking an empty beach).

Great post for the theme, tut-tut!

Kurt said...

Does this mean you lived on a commune?

mouse (aka kimy) said...

fun to remember the first earth day (1970)....I was in h.s. and I remember instead of taking the bus as was my usual mode of transportation, I rode my bike to school.

lots my friends decided to ride bikes as a statement.... but of course the buses still ran....

and some of my classes even had 'teach-ins'

some things don't change... some of the earth issues are much worse now than then, and then some earth issues are better....

we gotta keep on keeping on! guess that's the lesson!

I love the line in heather's poem


"a heart that can melt stones."

makes me weak in the knees, just like mother earth....

thanks for the wonderful add!

Wings1295 said...

Like that pic at the end, that is interesting! :)

CocoDivaDog said...

cool post tuts,
I was born in 1958, so that makes me an earth sign.

Anonymous said...

Deep are the feelings of the earth; too, our own we can relate. I like it. Great post, tut-tut :)

DineometerDeb said...

You grew up down wind of a hippy commune, cool. You were probably high most of your childhood due to the second hand smoke. This explains your mellowness today ; )

Tess Kincaid said...

Nice poem, TutTut!

Dakota Bear said...

I remember when our road was dirt. It was no fun to drive over when we had the winter thaw. The tires sank in the mud and there were ruts everywhere.

Liked the poem.

Liza B. Gonzalez said...

Loved the poem! I agree, it's hard to measure up to God but we should all try.

Squirrel said...

Your memory was more than a written memory, it was an illustration and a sort of little movie since I could see the dirt road and the yurts, and you walking out of your house to wait for the school bus... with the wind blowing...

Anonymous said...

A good bit of my childhood we lived on a dirt road. I loved the dustiness of it under my bare feet in the summer.

Pecos Blue said...

Very nice poem. Hope we can take better care of it.

Megan said...

Shoot. I was sure I left a comment. Really. But I can't remember what it was.

Cheers, Tuttles and have a lovely weekend!

lettuce said...

what a wonderful little paragraph
i wish you would tell us more


(liked the poem too)

Middle Ditch said...

That was nice .... What's a yurt?

Reya Mellicker said...

What a great poem! I agree completely, we are more like this beautiful planet than not. thank you!

California Girl said...

wonderful memory and you are lucky. I know I was in jr college and I have a vague memory of it being the first Earth Day just because of the way things were at that time. yurts in the mtns in 1970, very cool.