Today’s prompt comes to us from Gloria Gonsalves, who also suggested our prompt for Day Seven. Today, Gloria challenges us all to write a poem in honor of Earth Day. This could be about your own backyard, a national park, or anything from a maple tree to a humpback whale.

I took my inspiration from the whales mentioned in the prompt.  The opening line (from Genesis 1:21) appears in Copland’s choral piece ‘In the Beginning’ and is also the title of a symphonic poem for orchestra with recorded whale sounds by the American composer Alan Hovhanness.  This line, which has its own music, led me into a poem which has the tone of fable.

Whalesong

and God created great whales
who knew they would
inherit the earth.

they touched the salt space
sang to the sun and
silver moon above.

they watched hues turn
from light to dark and knew
the earth turned.

and they turned from
the winds of the land,
the songs of man –

they sang their own song
slipped through smooth waters,
swam in harmony.

For those who would like to explore some interesting sounds, here’s a link to the Hovhanness piece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjwUClT4RT8