Clarion Call

(On the day of Extinction Rebellion protests)

Yesterday

a heron stopped me in my tracks,

feet in river-flowing,

motionless as any statue,

such that, but for the duck nearby

I might never have seen her.

I watched

until with awesome speed

she caught dinner!

Blink

and I would have missed

this amazing show

of grace and skill.

But I didn’t

and

I was blessed.

This morning,

I sat observing

a winged gathering

streaming through the skies

like an aerial wave,

borne on delicate

fan-like wings,

whose whirring

glinted in the morning sun,

making the air

shimmer with luminosity.

So many moving as one,

the shapes they drew

on sky-canvas

of breath-taking beauty,

gave the impression

that I was witness

to the very inhale and exhale

of the divine.

A celestial expression

of the glory of life!

Glistening grasses

rippling in the field below

applauded this most spectacular show.

These astonishing displays

of vibrant life

well proclaim the natural choice

But elsewhere,

on this same day,

because we lost do seem,

on tarmac-covered bridges

and bustling streets

ordinary folk

must rise up

in fierce-loving defence

of this miraculous life

we foolishly take for granted.

We humans,

who think ourselves superior

sleep-walk into oblivion

as we fail to

feel the wonder

of starling murmurations,

of heron fishing,

of sun rising,

of sun setting,

In our hearts and souls!

We blithely sign our own death warrants

and those of our children

and all beings,

when we ignore the pain

of land scorched,

trees felled

water polluted, and

life driven to extinction,

thinking we are somehow

separate

from them.

The heron in the stream,

and the starlings overhead,

plead for our awakening.

Oh that we may heed the clarion call

and once more call heron

‘Sister’!

(Becky Mackeonis, ‘Earth Dreaming’ 17 November 2018)