Saturday 14 September 2020 was the opening of the Red Room “Trash To Treasure – Messages to Mother Earth” exhibit in Taipei. This is my work that was exhibited. I was asked to read the piece to close the presentation section of the opening.
This piece was created as a response to the prompt “Letters to Mother Earth”. In May, I was overwhelmed by the weight of all of the happenings in the world. On a walk in nature just outside Taipei, I noticed the way Mother Nature’s smallest inventions were pushing through the dark undergrowth toward the light, despite the weight of everything that might happen to them along the way.
Recently, I revisited the words in this work and created a new poem:
The Weight of the World
The weight of the world was like lead
Determined to crush me until I broke.
Trying to look toward the sun,
I couldn’t stand against the gravity.
Determined to crush me until I broke,
Politicians, economists, religious groups.
I couldn’t stand against the gravity
So I fell to the ground and wept.
Politicians, economists, religious groups
Buzzed like locusts above my head.
So I fell to the ground and wept.
Mother Earth whispered, “Observe.”
Buzzing like locusts above my head,
New shoots growing at my knees,
Mother Earth whispered, “Observe.
The tiniest of us can make a difference.”
New shoots growing at my knees,
Trying to look toward the sun,
The tiniest of us can make a difference,
Though the weight of the world is like lead.
katrinaabrown 