Poem Eleven Excerpt: Redwood

Your roots speak

in mantras, benedictions, 

Nirvana, the Holy Grail.

Who is listening?

Poem Eleven: Redwood
Call and Response for the Forest

(For three or more voices or group/solo alternation)

LEADER:
Tell me your secrets,

RESPONSE (ALL):
And we will tell you ours.

LEADER:
You are a medium.
You are a prophet.
You are a preacher.
You are a prayer.

ALL:
We are listening.

LEADER:
Can I put my ear
to your chest?

ALL:
We are listening.

LEADER:
Your heart is a drum.
Your roots speak in mantras,
benedictions, Nirvana,
the Holy Grail.

ALL:
We are listening.
But are we hearing?

LEADER:
Your leaves are amulets.

ALL:
They sound the alarm.

LEADER:
Your boughs speak,
portend, pray,
bear witness.

ALL:
We are listening.

LEADER:
Who will hold out their hands
and say—

ALL (with rising force):
Stop.

LEADER:
Who will hold the earth
beneath your feet?

ALL:
We will hold.
We will hold.

LEADER:
You are gods.
You are ancestors.
You are oracles.

ALL:
You are not ours to take.
You are not ours to burn.

LEADER:
Who will forgive
our trespasses?

ALL:
Only the forest.
Only time.

LEADER:
We wake.
We sleep.
We wake.
We sleep.

ALL (softly):
We forget.
We forget.

LEADER:
Make us into wood.
Make us into canoes.
Make us into memory
that floats.

ALL (rising together):
We will go timeless without you.
We will go rootless without you.
We will go lost without you.

ALL (soft, closing whisper):
You are sacred.
Let the ceremony begin.