2018 Visibility Through Art Exhibit
Invisible No More
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Mother Earth
Our great gift is the Spirit Father and our Mother Earth
Poem by Virginia Covert
Nisenan Vice Chair
You provided us with shelter and fed us from your seeds
You nurtured us from infants, filling every need
You wanted us to grow and thrive, was it the overall plan
For us to be the gardeners, the keepers of your lands?
You knew we’d need sound bodies, good reasoning and health
But in those years of nurturing, did you forget about yourself
In those years of trial did you stray from the original plan
Or did you start to love us, as only a mother can?
You gave of yourself so freely, then we demanded even more
When you tried to wane the flow, we found ways to make it pour
We thought ourselves above all other living things
And in a world that no one owned, we crowned ourselves the Kings.
We continue to plunder your resources but no longer for our needs
Now the plundering that is done is for our insatiable greed
One ages quickly under stress and you’re old before your time
But like so many spoiled kids, we refuse to see the signs.
My prayer is to restore your clean rivers, forests and lakes
And reestablish our brotherhood with the Raven. The Wolf. And the Snake
Mother, we finally know now that our future is in your hands
A lesson hard learned, we are not the Kings, but the keepers of your land.