Sherman

Call on Social Awareness and Responsibility for the Earth

The earth calls for the

care of every hand to mend

the scars left by human transgression.

The hour is now.

 I lift my head, it isn’t enough;

A tilt it back further, I’m still not at the top.

A walk to the side, it isn’t enough;

A few steps over, I still can’t see past.

How could such vastness come to exist?

Not shaped by human thought,

but crafted and nurtured by nature’s hand.

I stand enchanted, frozen in awe.

Amid a forest where magic breathes.

Awestruck by nature’s masterpiece,

such grandeur brings me to my knees.

Its elegance stirs something deep within me.

Over two millennia old,

What history has it lived through?

What changes in the earth, did it survive?

How did it make it through centuries of people?

A wonder in the mountains of Sierra,

In a stretch of land, so very narrow.

General Sherman, the largest Sequoia,

scratches the sky.

A symbol of resilience, and grandeur.

The tree stands steadfast, through time untamed.

Among a forest of giants with roots intertwined,

they draw strength from one another.

A lesson in unity we would do well to embrace.

Something so majestic cannot be described.

Standing beneath, my humility is felt;

How could humanity see itself,

as the authority of the Earth.

Tiny, we are before the stature of nature.

Its immense age encourages me to reflect.

In the vast current of time, our existence is fleeting,

Yet the echoes of our deeds endure for generations.

Through the ages, it has endured:

wildfires, earthquakes and storms.

The tree thrives, resilience it has mastered.

A lesson in perseverance for us all.

Rising human threats, can they withstand?

Pollution chokes, heat dries the land.

Footsteps press, soil compacts,

weakening roots that grasp for life.

It would be a tragic failing of humanity

to drive these trees to extinction.

Beneath the tree, I’ve come to reflect,

Unknowingly, what damage

to the environment

my own footprints have made?