_Lungs gilled and arms finned wide, We slipped into the pale Of that dry sea, following downrays Until we reached the cool Of silence, a sandpaved lagoon Upholding its weight of time Under trees that climbed._
_Perched on a log, we scanned The currents, the drifting shaft Of shadows, instinctively alert To armadillo's crawl, the stir Of something red, The eye of an iguana met... Ourselves. Perceiving_
_We were not alone in breathing, Being witness, As well as evidence In that primal air, How all of us shared In the serene of a sunless glow Which waterless flowed._
_Gently, we moved along a path That opened as we passed, Whispering our affirmations To those secret ones Who flickered and flashed, Carrying our echoes back From near, then far, far off._
_And slowly, the silence arced, Leaped high--and broke, With parrots in the undertow As the waves rolled over And the green tide flooded The forest floor, whirling, Swirling a world set free._
_Now all of us were cells In a chemistry of shells Older than snails, Plankton or sunbaked clay, Fellow creatures in an afternoon As joyous as a long lost tune About to be remembered._
_Oh all of us there In that drenched, tropic green Began to sing and sing, Shedding our ties With root and rock and sky, As we found our song In our living bond._
_Pod and leaf, mouth and beak, Whatever lived and breathed That sudden afternoon, Sang wonder through the woods, As we heard and discovered Each in the other Without a word._
_Until a metallic bird, On roaring wings, Crashed our song beneath The hammered surf, As it thundered, Like lightning in a storm, Fearfully born._
_Then all of us Grew motionless In the sculptured undersea Of silenced green, Knowing, as we did again, The thing forbidden and forgotten In a world of men._
_There will never be another, That day was forever._
DROP _by drop The earth is born A billion years From dark to dawn_
_Drop by drop As rivers flow Past sunless cliffs No wind has known_
_Where no grass blows And no birds sing There time drips slow And patient clings_
_Drop by drop Till waterfalls Are turned to stone_
_Here new stars form And mountains rise Clear of the storms That twist the sky_
_Drop by drop While caverns tall Carve crystal bones_