Watcher of worlds,
how long aware of our planet were you,
you who come to visit from what vast distances
from your planet world—
From somewhere, from elsewhere, in the great cosmos
you come.
Is this your first visit? Most likely it is not—
How many of you, from how many distant worlds,
have visited, one time or another, this planet,
our home,
who is to us like a mother,
known among us its inhabitants
as Earth,
upon which we are still young—
O such secrets you must possess
of stages of evolutionary consciousness
we cannot yet even guess,
whereas our secrets
—who in essence we are—
undoubtedly is all open
before you—
You who come & go freely,
what could we hide from you?
This, our fish bowl world you gaze through—
Blue-polished,
white swirled how it’s marbled,
a continent-embossed orb
in a solar brood of planets & moons,
this beautiful, rather quite unusually special planet
among them,
this, our home,
such a garden has it been known,
oh, & still is destined to be—
An atmosphere
blankets us & protects us here
of the ever-life-cycling of air—
As you descend into
you pass through
like a veil
those ever-changing shapes of cloud
that play above us,
as ever—
This is Earth,
with its glistening blue plains endless
of water,
the great, life-originating oceans—
And such a tremendous superabundance of diversity
are the living things of Earth
raveled up in codes
on the inner cellular,
oh, but even smaller, molecular level,
these twisting bands
of extraordinarily complex biochemicals
that determine genes,
that manifest to determine our biological being,
that reveal, on this planet,
we are all one family related,
of which you are most aware,
certainly you are aware—
Watcher of worlds,
scholar of planets, visitor from across what distances
do you soar above us and behold the spectacular Earth boasts
Oh, but so many planets
of untold numbers circling untold suns in the billions of galaxies
must obviously share
in the spectacular of mountain & canyon,
but here,
upon this planet,
it is the marvel of life that truly outstrips
the spectacular of mountain & canyon—
Throughout the vast medium of the waters
of ocean
is life we are not even fully aware of;
and upon terra firma
where we live
are living plains & grasslands & savannas;
here are the checkerboard crop fields
of human cultivation;
here are forests that are lungs of the planet—
Could you find a more luxuriantly green & splendorous,
than the rainforests of Earth?
Or the kelp forests
of our coasts?
Or consider how kaleidoscopic & how fragile
the teeming variety of life
of the coral reef.
Watcher of worlds,
do you know
all the little dizzying details of wonder here—
The fitful, sunlit dance of butterfly,
the hovering wing shimmer of dragonfly,
the hummingbird’s delight in zigzag flight?
Brilliant bold are the colors of the plummage
of macaw & toucan.
Iridescent bold the colors of the fishes
of the tropical sea.
How perfect the instinctual match of insect
to flower.
Naturally you have seen the gorgeous orchid—
And you must have noted the tulip, iris, lily,
daffodil,
the everyday daisy & buttercup?
You must know how the rose is for us
so specially meant
to speak to our heart.
And certainly you must know
of the elegant egret, the noble eagle,
the timid rabbit,
the hidden ways of snake, lizard & salamander—
The indefatigable little ant, you must agree,
is a wonder.
And how worm is happily married to the soil.
Whole, tiny, yet enormous worlds of their own,
are nestled comfortably
in the soil.
Endless,
as you must know,
are the varieties of life
to explore & to study here,
on our literally wonder-abundant,
amazing planet—
Endless the varieties of life
to ponder
as seeming miracles.
Watcher of worlds,
so you must know then all about us—
Have you known the civilizations of us
that rose to heights of power & glory,
the feast of tables spread
of masterfully accomplished culture,
only to pass away?
Civilizations even
recorded memory?
Could you answer for us
the mystery
of our origins?
Are you intimate
with the secrets
behind ancient pyramids & temples?
Did you witness the birth light of human ego?
Did you take note upon the blood shed,
when we discovered
our newfound, consciously-empowered ability
to transgress the limits of what had been
the animal natural?
And we so readily transgress—
By what logic?
Watcher of worlds,
you must have beheld with some measure of curiosity
the game board armies
advancing
to the kill.
You must have analyzed out of some scientific
—or is it spiritual—
inclination
millennia of the spectacle
of battlefield slaughter.
You must have witnessed perfect examples
of the human, ever-developing capability,
to hurt & to kill.
Watcher of worlds,
do you know
all the various horrifying details of atrocity here?
What a sword, what even a simple knife,
can do to our body?
How a bullet can instantaneously enter & tear open
our most precious organs?
How shrapnel rips open our flesh & splatters
the blood of our life?
How a bomb can obliterate our body entirely?
How newly-designed smart missiles can seek out individuals?
How purposely designed gases can eat up skin, burn up
the lungs,
short-circuit the nerves?
Have you seen the employment of the insidious devices
of torture?
You must know how inventive we are
in ways
that destroy lives.
Certainly you must know
what the jet fighter is for,
what the tank is for,
what the helicopter gunship is for,
what the inter-continental ballistic missile is for—
Do you know how many nuclear missiles
are poised,
kept ready for the launching?
Watcher of worlds,
is it any secret there are leaders among us
have authority to annihilate
whole peoples of Earth,
to devastate beyond any measure of sanity
the superabundant life
that is the treasure
of this Earth,
to empty of civilization
—if but only on this particular grand cycle—
our fish bowl world.
Or will some other agency
more natural,
or perhaps supernatural even,
for cleansing the fish bowl
of a sick humanity
be brought into
the evolutionary equation of cycles?
Yes,
spectacular
are the
the Alps & Andes, the Sierra Nevada & Cascades,
the
No different than on a thousand other planets,
the mountains of Earth would still be here,
the
Watcher of worlds,
what might you think of the towering nests of our cities,
cities
there are today that easily boast
& more?
To behold the big city plazas, the stately capitol squares,
the wide boulevards & avenues,
thronged by hundreds of thousands of our kind—
Our highways hundreds & thousands of miles crisscross countries
& continents—
Are you impressed by the bright smudges of our civilization’s lights
upon the nighttime Earth?
What all do you see?
How our self-made smoke & exhaust
now mix with our air?
How the toxic breath of cities can blot out
the Sun?
Do you know there are rivers of no fish
that run through the land?
Did you already know
that the oceans,
as there are some among us now claim,
are slowly dying?
Our climates are changing, have you noticed?
But there is no alarm sounded yet in our news—
We live today in the slick glamour of mass-conditioned
Illusion.
Watcher of worlds,
come to visit this rather quite unusually
special planet
—at least we think
it is rather quite unusually special—,
is there something yet redeemable
about us?
Do you know
all the supremely inspiring details
that reveal how extraordinary can be
the human gift?
The extraordinary human capability to open
the heart,
to offer unconditional love?
The untold humble acts of kindness, of compassion?
The selfless willingness to sacrifice all
for some greater purpose?
Or is that madness?
You must know, yes?
of our masterpieces of art & of thought,
of musical composition,
of language worked to perfection,
the freedom-loving joy of the dance
& of song,
the noble struggle of human intellect
to understand what appears so simple
to the senses,
oh, to comprehend what continuously dwarfs
our impassioned efforts—
Have you investigated enough about us
to know of our epiphanies,
our flash moments of enlightened insight?
There is something we do gain here,
for what is best to call soul,
there is still so much more of potential—
Think of us as another example
of the Ages-long career of evolution,
that we, too, might become, someday,
some far-off future day,
as
GODS.
You must know then
how very special we consider it,
another beginning human life come into this world,
another soul incarnation, another fate
another attempt at fulfillment—
And how many of us still to be born
to experience the thrill of the Story of this planet?
But how many of us can our planet sustain?
Over six billion of us
on this most lovely, unusually special,
oh, this rather quite unusually special,
most lovely lovely planet.
Watcher of worlds,
you who come & go freely, privy to who we are,
we have always known there was another hand
upon this planet—
Is it your hand that moves upon this planet?
Whose hand moves upon this planet?
Certainly not a Supreme Being,
no matter how many billion might still believe
in such an abstract of a notion.
Yet, an Intelligence such as perhaps you are
has played its hand upon this planet—
Who
—what other Godlike power out of the cosmos—
directs unseen
our destiny?
Watcher of worlds,
who among you can we address?
Who among you might we hold accountable
for the evil we have done?
Who among you has yet inspired
the best
in us
that we might owe gratitude?
Who is director of destinies?
Will we be allowed to step outside
& see ourselves
as you see us,
to someday see through,
really see through,
the glass of our fish bowl?
April-June 2004