Mother Earth Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Towards the sea a figure
Giant and black its way
Wended with stately pace
And a gay mien.
Night was on the day's cliff
Edge.
Towards the sea
The waters that had twilight
Shone
Now to increasing hues of
Dark
Their more gay reign
To a more somber time
Resigned.
Night was on the day's cliff
Edge
And Time
Walked slow to be in line
With the sadness dignified.
Far, far on from the horizon's
Edge
The silver of the moon
On the hunchback waves
With tiptoeing goblins
Played.
Whilst on dispersed rocks
The sirens neighed
Their tired laments and
Wanton griefs displayed.
O Mother Earth that full
Affords so many such displays
Ofwanton beauty in her various
Reigns
And styles.
O Mother Earth.
Earth rotates tonight but full
Ignores
That deft rotation for the wavering
Lights
Of stars and moons and sun
In distance far displayed.
O wanton beauty.
O Mother Earth rotating quiet
Yet
Speaking not a word in that
Blue
Cascading of the white-lighted
Rays
That everywhere in bliss and
Nobility surge.
O wanton beauty.
O Mother Earth.
The Figure dark in its mantles
Enfolding
So soft they were that
With a little night-air
They started flying round…
Anon on a long plain that
Ends in hideous heights and
Staggering
The Figure proudly prowls
Till on the high ledge stands
Below
The restless seas and oceans
Extend
And glory in the Earth at
Night
Without the need of trumpets
High and shrill
But
Of the humble sounds of
Crickets from all sides and
Crevices in the ancient weary
Rocks.
The Figure to the rim
Of the cliff edge linear
In the dark silhouette not
More is seen
And be one with the night
Its silent screams.

O nobility of silence!
O silent nobility
Peerage and Order!
O Mother Earth
O womb of horror and of
Beauty mixed inter-transforming.
O Mother Earth.

So wounded in its loins
So raw
So red
Trickling the blood:
A river almost by the
Nurse that's Night
Tended and
Somewhat healed.
O Earth
O Mother Earth.

-

Of things around us
Sing we.
Of the mass universe
And its things diverse
Sing I.
To sing the one is the
Other to sing.
My Monsignor that be why
We sing of these things
For these as the
Mass universe be.
O Earth
O Mother Earth.
When Earth in fever be
(As oft from days of bruising
When the dusk fans the groaning
Earth quiet)
The Earth arises from its roots
And from its very roots to tips
Draws forth blood up and new
Blood gives from healing
At the hands of Night.
O Earth
O Mother Earth.
Charnels and graves and tombs
In millions over your face
In land most but also
In the informal sea-depths
These
Have through suffering
Learnt virtue of quiet and
Of silence then.
O Earth
O Mother Earth
O Mother Earth of us.
Land, rivers, seas, and up
To the great father Ocean immense
Stretched.
-
Figure of flesh that was
Flesh that was
But now
One with the night shroud
Be
Mourn not!
In particles of the sea, the airs
Around
In things it be
And
Yearns to join again in One
From the All where it be
Spread
And be One from the All and
Serving to the All
O Earth
O Mother Earth
O Mother Earth of Us.