In our future
Jill McGrath
​
What we will miss
is hard to predict
because all the natural world
is still present, with us,
like a second skin
that’s far more lush and mysterious
than our own,
like sweet pure air
we take for granted as we move
through this world’s great beauty,
no longer knowing or remembering
how it felt
before we had words
to name, to analyze, to judge;
what divides us
from what we once were,
dwelling fully in our sensory world?
We were like dolphins
coursing through waves,
flippers
pushed and tilted,
at one with the water.
We knew our mother’s first touch,
skin on skin, like one breathing,
in and out, soft, primal.
We knew sun tapping our hair
like bees’ feet touching down on a petal,
a language,
like water trickling down our arms
or whispering to and fro
on a sandy beach.
We knew knees on grass,
hands in dirt exploring
without identifying “dirt”, “rock”
or even “knee.”
​
What does a swan know
about the water it paddles
or the hummingbird sense
about the way its wings
tap a staccato on air?
If we could only immerse
again in instinctual knowing,
relearn, connect deeply to nature,
so our damaging actions
would cease?
But we’ve become too separate in our built
environments. We create stories
to escape disaster. We set goals, but relapse
into comfort and denial, the impacts
of climate change still too far away.
Are we caught in a current of no-return,
the catastrophic ruin
of our only paradise?
The eagle is soaring high above our heads,
scanning for signs of life below. The hums
of the humpback whales vibrate oceans
as they journey, seek food and a safe
haven to bear their young.
The grizzly bear is roaming deeper into its woods,
capturing last meals before it hibernates.
Humans, it is time,
it is time to find our innate wisdom
to survive.
Photo Courtesy of Unsplash
Author bio: Jill is a Seattle poet who loves outdoor adventures like biking and hiking, and indoor adventures like dancing. on the dance floor. Memorable escapades have changed her life: a 1-year journey in Asia on a tandem bicycle; a 1-year stint editing tourism magazines in Kathmandu; a spontaneous wedding in a Nepali temple in Boudhanath. Hikes and paddleboarding in our great Pacific Northwest have also been transformative. Current projects include editing a poetry manuscript based on bicycle travels in Asia and circulating a first poetry book for publication.
Jill has also collaborated with jazz composer and performer Nelda Swiggett in two 70-minute multi-media presentations. Her poem “Healing the Divide” was integrated with “Alaska Suite: A story of beauty, loss and hope” in 2022. It was created to inform the audience about the effects of climate change. A current production with Nelda called“ For the Birds” is focused on the fate of birds, and it includes 2 of her poems: “Findingtheir way” and “Creatures of Habit.”
Jill has also published a chapbook, The Rune of Salt Air. It was the winner in the Lyric Poetry Chapbook Competition with Still Waters Press in 1991. She has also had 46 poems published in literary magazines, including Between the Lines, Salish Magazine, the Seattle Review, The MacGuffin, Southern Poetry Review, West Wind Review, and Poet & Critic.