Envious Of Extinction Poem by Hugh Cobb
Envious Of Extinction
I find myself envious of extinction:
Snail Darters & other species hanging on the brink...
More envious still of those already vanish'd
from our corrupted & polluted plane
having slipp'd through some dimensional wall,
gone, in a blink of God's eye.
Those lucky beings, now fossilized remains
of some bygone age, elegant in their passing
fossil record the only trace
they were ever here at all.
Given our predilection towards folly,
it is utmost arrogance to assume
we'll endure on the path we've taken.
Someday other, hardier, species
will gaze at our remains & wonder:
exactly what was our place
on this imperfect sphere;
how our biology affected the ecology;
why was this one species banish'd;
how long did man hang on
th'evolutionary brink before
surrendering to th'inevitable?
Insect anthropologists might well conclude
that it was nothing other than the main:
that mankind orchestrated his species’ fall;
an act of ecological suicide due to arrogance.
Hives will bustle with activity (biologically determined)
or perhaps hive mind will have an intellectual epiphany...
Communicating in clicks & subsonic sounds
they will query their collective mind
to decipher messages contain'd
in shards of bone & ruin'd monuments
of our too proud species.
To their compound eyes
our wreck'd cities might seem gigantic hives
for our social structures would be alien to them,
perhaps beyond their ken,
& in those millions of years in between
our rotted flesh become a new fossil fuel
our bones compress'd (by geologic forces)
to glittering, gleaming jewels.
(Copyright 2/6/2006)
YOU HAVE INTERPLAYED WITH LANGUAGE USED A BIT OF OLD ENGLISH WHICH SHOWS COURAGE, THIS IS A GOOD PIECE OF POETIC DIALOG AND YOU SHOW SOME HUMAN FAILINGS WHICH WE SHOULD AS POETS HAMMER IT HOME EVERYDAY, WELL DONE GREAT WORK WARM REGARDS ALLAN
A strong and educational piece Hugh, This one should be time-capsuled. I will admit due to my lack of education in this area, I found it complex, but feel I was able to read between the lines, and still leave myself questions for further study. Truly a treasure. Angie :)
'Even the human heart is slightly left of centre.' -Northrop Frye, author. Lovely employment of the language, Hugh. My exact feelings on the subject. It is as though you were peering directly into my mind. It will indubitably prove too obtuse for most readers I'm afraid. 'O men, let us beware of ourselves! -Louis Riel, Métis leader and mystic,1 June 1884.
Hi Hugh, I almost didn't want to like this as it's a pretty damning indictment on the human race - but like it or lump it, it's scarily true. Your use of language made a pretty dark subject a strangely beautiful read and I loved the comparison of our bones to gems at the end. Anna xxx
Wow, Hugh... strong, thought-provoking and possibly scarily-accurate thoughts screaming out of this masterfully-crafted piece, indeed. t x
Wow, strong stuff... makes you wonder. Has man's arrogence brought us to the brink of extinction? Brian
Human arrogance indeed! Hell, we're so full of ourselves we even named our species Homo sapiens (wise ape, roughly translated) . All in all though, if we reach the Cobbian conclusion and end up as glittering, gleaming jewels, then may we all shine on! (thanks Mr. Lennon) . Hugh, once again, you've managed to stimulate the ole melon. GWG
Thought-provoking. An impressive picture of what was, what is, and what might come. It's easy to be elegant once you are fossilized (nothing to envy) , but while alive we can't help being fallible. Probably those who come after will be no better.
Great write! ! How we have made it this far in the nuclear age is amazing! ! But wont it be sad if our poetry becomes completely silent?
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/24/2024 7:05:32 AM # 1.0.0.1119
i like this...its depth. u.(10 from me)