The Lost Song

The Lost Song

Can you hear the trees sing?

The creaking bough, the rustling leaves,

A trunk’s comment when swaying in the breeze?

Accented by the percussion of the clambering squirrel,

And the piping of the nested bird,

Can you hear the trees sing?

Are their voices choked by belching smokestack?

Stony pipes pouring filth into the skies,

A celebration of industry drowning nature’s chorus,

Smothering voices too soft for undiscerning ears?

Why don’t you hear the trees sing?

Or do you hear the earth cry?

Have you been deafened by roaring engines,

Screaming overhead, rattling in the street, groaning on the rails?

Are you more attuned to the vendor in your pocket?

Or have you merely stopped listening?

Have you heard the earth cry?

Can you let the trees sing?

Must you drown them out in the winds of climate wronged?

Battered nature pushed to a limit we don’t truly know,

A force we cannot understand yet,

Thus far not seeing her full power unveiled.

We could let the trees sing,

But we choose to make the earth cry.

Can you hear the trees sing?

Do you hear the earth cry?

Won’t you let the trees sing?

Must you make the earth cry?

We could let the trees sing.

We could let the trees sing…

Cliff Lake 12/12 and 13/2022

CliffSongs