Once
Once grasshopper jumped with every step
And ponds were full of frogs.
Once there were stag beetles
That lived in rotten logs.
Once there were huge flocks of swallows
Wheeling through the sky.
Now they are all gone
And we’re left to wonder why.
Once great forests covered every hill
Bears and wolves hunted the deer.
Once people lived in harmony with nature
And the seasons of the year.
Once there was a balance
Full of bounty for the gleaning.
We lived a natural life;
An existence full of meaning.
Opher – 23.1.2021
We live in the Anthropocene, in a landscape designed by man. The wilderness has gone. Nature is tamed.
All that lives only does so through our benevolence; vestiges of what once was.
The forests have given way to green fields of crops, sprayed with death.
Now we life an artificial life and search for meaning.