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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
UNQUIET EARTH, by LOUISE DRISCOLL
First Line: When they call earth quiet
Last Line: Our feet once trod.
Subject(s): Earth; World
First Line: When they call earth quiet
Last Line: Our feet once trod.
Subject(s): Earth; World
When they call earth quiet
I think they do not know
How life surges
In wave on wave of power.
The old earth shakes with
Things that grow
And laughter of dead women
Caught in a scarlet flower.
When they call earth quiet
I think they have not seen
Old roads covered and
Old paths lost.
There is nothing more restless
Than small, fine green
That stirs in the seed that
The wind has tossed.
The old earth mother
In every field and thicket
Uncovers and recovers,
Bearing without rest.
Eggs and sprouts and lichens,
Mouse and worm and cricket,
And wild red honey at
Her warm brown breast!
Seed that dies to live again
And no man understanding,
Sour green fruit that loves the sun
But waits till frost for sweet;
And that old word of dust to dust,
Destiny commanding,
Flower and fruit and seed to make
The year complete!
The earth is never beaten;
She has harvests in wild places.
The bear knows the berry,
The fox knows the grape,
And all the old dead in her
Come out with flower faces;
She trembles with the forces
That quiver and escape.
When men call earth quiet
I think they do not know
How root calls to root
And breaks the brown clod,
They've never watched the woods come
Where men no longer go
And eat the long road where
Our feet once trod.
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