Call Me Awed Poem by Bill Galvin

The grandeur of a Notre Dame cathedral…
Its man-made architectural brilliance
Designed for the dutifully pious.

Call me awed…
But I prefer the majesty
Of the Creator's original Temple,
There for the righteously respectful,
Made of delicate alignments fair,
Of holy Earth and pure Water,
And out standing in the open Air.

Call me awed…
Some aspects of Nature are so beautiful,
So perfectly balanced,
So self-sufficient, and so intricately interwoven,
We don't need to change them at all;
We can only hope to admire Her charms
By finding a little-visited sheltered bay,
And sharing in Her company,
In a hushed and reverential way.

The beauty of a well-designed auto;
The sleekness and power of a motorcycle;
The results of mechanical ingenuity.
But, trace all engineering back to its roots,
And you'll see we just copy, emulate, and enhance
The Natural Laws; we walk in Nature's boots.

Call me awed…
The snow that carpets the scene with white
Does not need any more decoration.
The bare arms and fingers of a leafless tree;
The strong shoulders of an evergreen bough,
Embracing as much snow as can be held
Until it sloughs off, sliding downward,
In the warming winter sun.

We've designed delicate, minute, complex electronics
To direct and reliably modify electron flow;
We excite atoms and control beams of light for surgery,
For our protection, and for amusing us at a laser show.

Call me awed…
How many truly immerse themselves into a sunset?
Or a sunrise? Or are deeply drawn into a night brightened
By shining star and reflected moonlight?
Or enjoy the flash and boom of a thunderstorm?
Or look for the next rainbow, rather than curse the rain?

Balance is what we need…
To seek in Her arms the calm and comfort
Needed to offset the daily stresses.

Call me awed…
Did you ever look closely at the veins of a green leaf?
The life-energy flows through a leaf as in our own bodies.
We are no better nor important to this earthly element,
Than the minutest speck of Naturalness.

Call me awed…
Yes, we need music in our lives;
We need to make music, to have harmony;
But if we could not have it… it is always there;
The sounds are out there for us to hear…
The whispers, the roars, the peeps, the howls,
The chirps, the whinnies, the mews, and growls,
The clucks, the squawks, the hoots, the purrs,
The croaks, the bleats, the barks, and chirrs,
The buzzes, the caws, the hisses, the neighs,
The tweets, the trills, the cackles, and brays,
The desert breeze swept by the juniper trees,
The pouring rain as it beats in stormy sheets,
A rippling stream that can put you into a dream,
A placid pond when fish jump and splash,
The sudden crash of a lightning flash…
All these sounds, if you listen reverently,
Can be a Natural melody, part of a symphony.

Call me awed…
I love the ocean calm, I love stormy seas,
The rhythm of the crashing surf.
I love the desert quiet, the desert dark,
The mesas, the canyons, the warm red earth.

Don't get me wrong…
You can worship anything or anyone you please;
As long as it puts your mind at ease;
As long as it takes your spirit higher;
Brings you to a place where you're inspired,
And doesn't do harm to anyone or anything else.
But… call me awed… at all of Nature's wealth…
From ice to fire, mountain to boggy mire, orchid to briar,
Or… call me odd… I don't mind…
Hopefully, likeminded, I'm preaching to the choir.

Finished 5-7-2016 (Sedona, AZ)