Thoughts in Rhyme

VIII. WORLD AROUND

1. EARTH
   1. The tiny earth that seems but naught
      Is home for life and art and human thought.
      
      
   2. I know not what our planet gains
      From all the life that it sustains.
      
      
   3. Who can imagine a lifeless earth
      Sans pain and joy, sans death and birth?
      
      
   4. The earth is a stupendous place indeed
      On which billions thrive and daily feed.
      
      
   5. We can't destroy the land and sea.
      When we are gone, they still will be.
      
      
   6. Earth is the only home that a human has:
      Amidst stars and all th'interstellar gas.
      
      
   7. To sustain life many things are there:
      Like land and water, light and air.
      
      
   8. The earth is unique, not in size or mass:
      But because of water and its cloak of gas.
      
      
   9. Mars too cold, Venus too hot,
      But earth is right for life and human thought.
      
      
   10. Jupiter's too big, Pluto too dark
       Earth is right for Life's bright spark.
       
       
2. NATURE
   
   1. Nature is just, Nature is blind.
      It turns into God when it's also kind.
      
      
   2. Birds and beasts and fowl and fish
      Know naught of stars, nor make a wish.
      
      
   3. If trees talked and we understood,
      We wouldn't chop and burn their wood.
      
      
   4. Stars are small, the sun does rise;
      These, in fact, are Nature's lies.*
      
      
   5. Systems that have pleasure and pain
      Cannot stable for long remain.*
      
      
   6. Fruits and flowers may grow and bloom
      When we all have passed our day of doom.
      
      
   7. At Nature's beauty, if no one looks,
      It's wasteful as unopened books.
      
      
   8. Human beings everywhere
      With joy at rainbows always stare.
      
      
   9. From colors do wonders come to pass,
      Like the bright red sun to lush green grass!
      
      
   10. The seasons and the lunar phases,
       Are Nature's breathing and making faces.
       
       
3. PEACE
   
   1. Peace, not war, will be the fashion
      When the motive force is pure compassion.
      
      
   2. It is not yet peace when guns don't kill,
      If nations live in distrust still.
      
      
   3. While hunger, ill-health their tolls do take,
      Bombs and arms we still do make.
      
      
   4. The world will be a beautiful place
      If we respect every creed and race.
      
      
   5. It's through love, rather than with hate
      That we can better mankind's future fate.
      
      
   6. Let's think about the distant stars
      'stead of making all our stupid wars.
      
      
   7. 'tis not by force and armed might
      That victory comes in every fight.
      
      
   8. When a nation needs food and schools;
      Tanks and bombs are bought by fools.
      
      
   9. Places of worship that abound
      Must search for kinship with all around.
      
      
   10. Not war, but peace, in our hearts we feel,
       Unless we happen in weapons to deal.
       
       
4. UNIVERSE
   
   1. How come there is a world out there,
      And I, of it, become aware?
      
      
   2. Nowhere in the Cosmos do we find
      Anything like the human mind.
      
      
   3. Though stars may waves radiate,
      Thoughts from them don't emanate.
      
      
   4. Novas, stars, like fish and trees
      Don't seem to know of our species.
      
      
   5. Near distant stars we yet may find
      Life of another form and kind.
      
      
   6. Silent stars are far and bright;
      They care not a whit for the human plight.
      
      
   7. No final goal the world has willed:
      Each moment is a task fulfilled.
      
      
   8. Bodies on the heavenly scene
      May be by all humans seen.
      
      
   9. Frightened and pious they once became
      When to the skies a comet came.
      
      
   10. In the limitless stretch of space and time
       Only the human mind can think and rhyme.
       
       
5. WHOLENESS
   
   1. None of us is fully free,
      We're all parts of a cosmic tree.
      
      
   2. There is no tight and opaque wall:
      We live in a web, connecting all.
      
      
   3. Every plant and every creature
      Has a role to play in the world of Nature.
      
      
   4. Mystics claim they've found at last
      The Oneness in the Cosmos vast.
      
      
   5. A spark from the Grand Cosmic Whole
      Shines in every human soul.
      
      
   6. Even the sun so far away,
      On distant Pluto holds in its sway.
      
      
   7. There's not a spot in the cosmos vast
      Where EM waves have not been cast.
      
      
   8. Not just for us that the world is there;
      It's for one and all to happily share.
      
      
   9. We are like leaves on a sturdy tree
      Whose roots lie deep in mystery.
      
      
   10. Through matter, energy we all are bound,
       And through ideas, traditions, all around.
       
       

[ Back ] [ Top ] [ Next ]

Brautigan Virtual Library