Earth, You Are My Body

Oh, Earth,
for your lush body broken,
for your living waters sullied,
for your sheltering trees scorched,
for your wild creatures pursued.
 
For you, in my distress,
I call out.
I long for the breath of the wind
and the dance of the sea
to move what seems unmovable,
to break us free from this silence
that hangs in the air.
 
Aching for a song of repair
to liberate this land,
I call out.
You, Earth, are my body.
This planet, a sanctuary.
This land, a garden.
 
In my distress,
who will listen,
who will refuse to be silent,
who will lament with me?
 
Who will lift their voices?
in sacred song
and call out with me
in distress
to heal your earthly paradise?


     –  Rev. Sandra Fees from Conversations with the Sacred: A Collection of Prayers, 2020, Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Jennifer Kelleher, Editors

Rev. Sandra Fees is the Minister for the UU Church of Berks County in Reading, Pennsylvania. She is a published poet and was selected to be the 2016 Poet Laureate for Berks County.