Earth Songs – Jerry Prater

Fall 2020, Fall 2020 Poetry, Poetry

Imagine the highest mountain

You could climb in your mind,

Where early morning mist bathes

The frosted beargrass in pearly dew

And wild huckleberries offer

Their tart gift to fat pancakes

Cooked over an open fire.

Imagine all this

And climb.

Seek out the stones

That have lost their voice,

Silent in the eddy and rage of water.

Listen, listen, and listen for a sound.

Then gather the stones around you

As a mother gathers lost children to her apron.

Lift up your silent stones

And sing.

If we could but still all voices,

Cars, trains, planes,

Then lay our ear to the ground,

We could hear the song of the earth.

There is a gentle hum borne of the rise and fall

Of her molten heart and the rough comings and goings

Of her stoney mantle.

It is the song of a million millenniums

If we could but hear.

Then songs will rise from every mountain peak;

Stones will speak their truths.

Jerry Prater is a retired Emergency Department RN. Natural Areas volunteer.