Earthsoil - a.k.a.: dirt - Poem

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 1, 1999 by Christine M. Baty

   Deep, dark, fragrant, moist,
   rich soil of the Earth.
   Yes, and more.
   But dead earth? Just dirt?
   I don't think so.

   Earth is busy, always working,
   greening herself for our pleasure
   and our sustaining.
   Busily she knits grasses and trees
   and flowers and fruits,
   telling stories all the while
   of other days when she was stardust,
   embers cooled from the fire
   of God's creating love,
   and of all her transformings
   into trees and grasses and flowers and birds
   and fish and animals and people.

   Like me, you say? I can't quite hear,
   I don't understand the words you speak.
   Not yet, but someday.
   Then I'll join you in your knitting,
   and in your storytelling,
   and in your transforming.

   Some call this joining death.
   Death?
   It sounds like life to me.

-- Christine M. Baty Arlington Heights, Ill.