Earthlove Poem by Alla Bozarth

What love the Earth has for her creatures,
to give us the moon and invite the evening star
to ride with her half-way through the heavens—
What love to give such voice to coyote
that it can imitate the wolf or a human man
crying out in agony, or the playful yip of a puppy,
and all three together become the operatic song
of the evening, to welcome the moon-rider
from across the mountains and down over the river,
and all the neighborhood dogs on both sides
of the river and ridges join in the antiphonal chorus.
What love there is when beautiful things die and
disappear, and unknown to us still work, gone underground,
to bring forth their springtime revolution, that redemptive
astonishment we take for granted as the garden’s resurrection.
What love the Earth has to allow me, a member
of a violent and often hostile species, to walk here
every evening, in time to enjoy such company,
that wild and innocent assembly of natural beings
who do not fret about evolution or the nature of God,
and remain intimately proof of everything thus miraculous and real.



This poem is from the book Diamonds in a Stony Field
by Alla Renée Bozarth, copyright 2011. All rights reserved.