By: Carol Flake Chapman
Like cicadas that lie underground for years
Worming their way through the motions
As though the air above is a distant dream
We have been living as though buried deep
Beneath the weight of everyday needs
Slumbering our way through our lives
Until something stirs some signal
To dig our way out into the light
We look around and see others breaking
Through the same hard crust that has kept us
Lost in the dark illusion that we’re alone
But drawn together in despair and hope
We are learning new ways of being
In a world that is crumbling around us
A long-time journalist, Carol Flake Chapman returned to poetry, her first love, after the sudden death of her husband shattered her life. Poetry, she found, was the language she needed for heallng, not only for herself, but for the ruptured connection between humans and the natural world.
"When I learned that cicadas would be emerging in 2020 in great swarms after living underground for 17 years, I began to think about how so many of us have been going through the motions in our lives without awareness of the bigger picture outside or beyond our own lives. But I’ve seen a growing consciousness all around the world that the Earth is in trouble. At first it might seem that we are isolated in this awareness, but we are finding that there are people like us emerging everywhere, who share our concern about global warming and who share our sense of urgency in developing new ways of living on the Earth in harmony with nature and each other. It has been heartening to realize we are not alone in this desire for change."
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