The New Birth

Monday 30 July 2012

We're all in the process of giving birth.
The pain is high but there is no epidural.

The baby we are giving birth to
is a golden child who has
enough teats for us all to suckle.

Sometimes, everything collapsing is not a bad thing.
especially when you have prior warning.

The new to come will be so much better and simpler
than the beast we are now used to,
which alienates everything in its path
us from each other,
us from our best,
us from the earth,
the poor from their share.

There is no epidural, but the clear-headed pethidine
is hope.  Its bubbles are so wide I can lie flat out and fly
right up to the ceiling and see
the whole of the world.

~ ~ ~

(Inspired by Ted Trainer's The Transition to a Sustainable and Just World)

Espiritu de Mexico by Alberto Thirion (CC)

6 comments

  1. You might be interested in this Im thinking of doing something for it....

    http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/australia/australia-nature-writing-prize-2012.xml

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  2. Ooh, yes.  I saw this last week or the week before and and thought I definitely want to at least try my hand.  Then I had to reformat my computer and lost all my links, so thanks for the reminder :)

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  3. Tess Giles Marshall31 July 2012 at 02:41

    Wow Sue, this is a great poem - really immediate and visual. Oh I hope we really can give birth to the golden child. I hope we're not too late.
    I'm currently reading a book called The Man Who Quit Money (and yes I did buy the book, and the Kindle I'm reading it on!). It's the story of an American guy known as Suelo who lives without using money. Perhaps not possible for us all to do this, but I love this sort of idealism. It's one strand of birthing the golden child. If you haven't come across his work his blog is here, linked to a post which explains - at the bottom - some of his ideals. http://www.zerocurrency.blogspot.co.uk/2012_07_07_archive.html

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  4. I hope we're not too late too, Tess.  You know, some days, I can see it.  I know it's there.  We just need to walk towards it and have courage to do what needs to be done and let die what needs to die.

    Other days ...

    I've heard of Suelo but then, as is the way of the interwebs, sort of lost track of him.  Thanks for the link. 

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  5. You've made the golden child the great mother, with all the teats, the many-breasted Goddess Cybele in ancient Greece.

    In Taoism it says, "Once you find the mother, you know the child."  The Mother is the true self, the child is its multi-faceted expression in the world.   The True self transcends the world as you do in this dream.  Very joyfully, very profoundly the process of Liberation, Sue!

    A wonderful Japanese poem you might like by Yosano Akiko (b.1878):

    The day the mountains move has come.

    I speak, but no one believes me.

    For a time the mountains have been asleep,

    But long ago they all danced with fire.

    It doesn't matter if you believe this,

    My friends, as long as you believe.

    All the sleeping women are now awake and moving.

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  6. Wow, Sarah, your comments are always so full of yummy-tasting-but-highly-nutritious-non-cavity-producing airy awesomeness.  That poem is just so wonderful :D

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