Gaia, and the Chasm
in science fiction,
truly alien life and humans
often seem perplexed
by how each us understands the world,
and of how concepts of thought and feeling
might leap across the chasm between us,
I imagine Gaia:
the community beneath our feet,
before our eyes,
the symbiotic relationship of plant and animal,
of rock and water, of sun and earth,
the whole of life within the wholeness of the physical world,
so far, Gaia seems to treat humans as toddlers
who only understand limits through pain:
storms, discomfort, blunt physical expressions of the harm
our human thoughtlessness wreaks,
the optimist in me finds hope in nature,
the gratuitous glory of a forest, a sunset, a whale,
here in the Smokies today, a barred owl flew into our world,
touching the creek, hunting from perches in the trees,
sure of itself, magnificent in the blunt sureness of its being,
last year a great blue heron lived its life before us here,
letting me photograph it, watch it snack on minnows,
erupt into the air with artistic aplomb,
bears around here are how Gaia particularly expresses herself
to allies who open ourselves to such revelation,
Gaia may not specifically reach to me across the chasm,
but Gaia reaches and I do my best to reach back,
to realize my ignorance and seek to learn, and appreciate .
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