Poem on Sunday: Force of Nature, On and On by Andrew Holden

Inspired by “Rhyfeddodau’r Wawr” (The wonders of the dawn) by R Williams Parry and the wonderful line, “grass crowbars”. I’ve long thought that we’re not killing the planet, just the conditions that allow us to exist on it.

The tarmac on the path before me

bulges with a latent strength.

Trosolion y glaswellt.

Nature unrepentant,

phenomenal, the slender grass stem

shoulders strong to push aside

and shuffle off this virus Man

For all debasing ills pilled on

and on from arrogance of the clever mind,

blind to the truth that this host

will not yield to our ignorance.

So blithely on and on we strut

and strip all that sustains us from

what gave us life

and carry on and on

the human race to our oblivion.

Then earth will breathe again.

Convalescing from

a sniffle that once was Man.