Relevant Poem

Today in class (out of class?) I was excited to see how enraptured we became in our discussion of eco-feminism. I wanted to respond to it some way, and poetry usually is the best wasy I can see to do that. Often another poet voices the exact thoughts that should come to my mind. I thought this one poem was highly relevant to our discussion and notions of overturning systems of patriarchal oppression and turning it into something useful. So I thought I'd share it.

VI

Let the old man lie in the earth
(he has troubled men's thought long enough)
let the old man die,
let the old man be of the earth
he is earth,
Father,
O beloved
you are the earth
he is the earth, Saturn, wisdom,
rock, (O his bones are hard, he is strong, that old man)
let him create a new earth,
and from the rocks of this re-birth
the whole word
must suffer
only we
who are free,
 
may foretell,
may prophesy,
he,
(it is he the old man
who will bring a new world to birth)
it is he,
it is he
who already has formed a new earth.

                ~H.D. "The Master"