Poem Eleven Excerpt: Redwood
Your roots speak
in mantras, benedictions,
Nirvana, the Holy Grail.
Who is listening?
Poem Eleven: Redwood
Call and Response for the Forest
(For three or more voices or group/solo alternation)
LEADER:
Tell me your secrets,
RESPONSE (ALL):
And we will tell you ours.
LEADER:
You are a medium.
You are a prophet.
You are a preacher.
You are a prayer.
ALL:
We are listening.
LEADER:
Can I put my ear
to your chest?
ALL:
We are listening.
LEADER:
Your heart is a drum.
Your roots speak in mantras,
benedictions, Nirvana,
the Holy Grail.
ALL:
We are listening.
But are we hearing?
LEADER:
Your leaves are amulets.
ALL:
They sound the alarm.
LEADER:
Your boughs speak,
portend, pray,
bear witness.
ALL:
We are listening.
LEADER:
Who will hold out their hands
and say—
ALL (with rising force):
Stop.
LEADER:
Who will hold the earth
beneath your feet?
ALL:
We will hold.
We will hold.
LEADER:
You are gods.
You are ancestors.
You are oracles.
ALL:
You are not ours to take.
You are not ours to burn.
LEADER:
Who will forgive
our trespasses?
ALL:
Only the forest.
Only time.
LEADER:
We wake.
We sleep.
We wake.
We sleep.
ALL (softly):
We forget.
We forget.
LEADER:
Make us into wood.
Make us into canoes.
Make us into memory
that floats.
ALL (rising together):
We will go timeless without you.
We will go rootless without you.
We will go lost without you.
ALL (soft, closing whisper):
You are sacred.
Let the ceremony begin.
