Earth Mother

·By Alison Rotmark

· Life pulses throughout Her land,
Covered by rich harvest and fertile beauty -
Time as deep as ocean and as infinite as sand rippling harmony and
complexity; Her duty
Her life and wisdom rides the breeze,
As her mercy and strength evaporates.
Man's creation reigns; devastation, disease
>From invention of the wheel; we've industrialized our fates.
War and meaningless death - what extinction it creates.
Her rivers of life are running dry
As She watches Her children lead Her to die.
She feels the gentle wind of Her own failing breath,
And from Her eye a final tear does glisten.
It saddens Her to know we orbit our own death.
We've always known the way - her voice; if only we would listen.

 

                                                                                                           

Track 1: Deaf to the Voice

 

“Earth Mother” by Alison Rotmark, is a poem and story about how long ago the Earth flourished in beauty and everything was good and pure.  But over time, degradation of the planet, and  war and pollution, slowly destroys our planet and only home. The poem is a story that starts out saying, “Life pulses throughout her land, covered by rich harvest and fertile beauty.  Time as deep as ocean and as infinite as sand rippling harmony and complexity.”   These lines are saying, the Earth was timeless, beautiful, and at ease.  The next part  goes on to say that “Her duty, her life, and her wisdom rides the breeze, as her mercy and strength evaporates.”  The Earth is still living but she is slowly withering away to a just a shell of the former beauty she was.  The environment is being destroyed little by little; like the breeze, it drifts away undetected. The lack of compassion towards the planet and being deaf to the  voice of the earth   leads to suffering and ultimately death.

 

Track 2: World of Difference

 

            I really enjoyed reading this poem because I could relate to what Rotmark was saying about what is happening to the world.  In my everyday life, I see the war raging in Iraq, Global warming, and crimes in our communities. I feel that we, as  an entire nation could improve in   being considerate about  others and the planet we all live on.  One act of kindness like picking up a  paper wad, debate to ban smoking in a local restaurant, or even just smiling at someone can make a world of difference. I, personally, enjoyed reading this poem and realize that I sometimes also take what a wonderful world we live in for granted. 

 

3.  Theme: The Voice   

                                                                                                          

             Alison Rotmark wrote this poem as a warning to be cautious of what you do to your only home and to appreciate it while it's still here and beautiful. This poem is written about our blatant disregard for the core of our existence - Mother Earth. Man has made machines to improve life but the real creation is devastation and disease. Ironically, the creations to improve life will ultimately be our demise. The poem says “She watches Her children lead her to die”, which is saying that we are doing nothing to stop war and pollution. She can see that the end is coming and that she is being led into it. And for this she sheds a tear. But maybe if we stopped trying to distance ourselves from nature we would be able to be in touch with it and improve the conditions of the planet. If we all had a passion for the earth then we could all live happily and keep our beautiful planet longer. The end of the poem says we know the way- her voice; we just have to listen to it.

 

Track 4: Some Regrets                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                             

            Many pieces of literature and/or form of entertainment and storytelling have many of the same meanings. This poem is very similar to one of my all time favorite movies Happy Feet. In the movie Mumble, the dancing penguin is forced into exile by his own father, Memphis, who resents his son being different. But a time after this Mumble returns to find his father cowering in a cave regretting everything he had said to his son. Memphis finally realized what a great son he had because he missed his son so much. The Father and Son make up with each other and the ending is happy. But in most situations you won’t be able to go back and fix your problems. In Earth Mother it is almost too late to fix the damage to our nation and our planet. But with the destruction of our home, people really realize how important it is to them. The only problem is they don’t realize until its almost too late.

Track 5 and *Bonus* Six: Disarray  

 

 

Figurative Language Key:

·    Simile

·    Consonance

·    Internal forced rhyme

·    Alliteration

Along with the figurative language highlighted above, the poem is written in an extended Personification.  The planet Earth, and the human nation is being compared to a  Mother watching her children.  There is no one certain rhythm that I found in the poem. The poem is written in a sort of Chaotic arrhythmic way that adds to the theme of disarray in the poem.    The rhyme scheme is going by lines ABABCDCD but the next three lines stand out. They are DEE and says “War and meaningless death - what extinction it creates.
Her rivers of life are running dry As She watches Her children lead Her to die”. Rotmark wrote these three lines to that we are killing ourselves and doing nothing about it.  But then the poem slips back to FGFG to finish the poem with a bit of structure.  This structure in the end of the poem may symbolize that it might be alright  in the end if we try to prevail.

Track 7: Wasteland

            All authors write about what they know or what they have lived.  Allison Rotmark, a poet of the 20^th century, wrote Earth Mother during the 90's; a time known as contemporary poetry.  U.S. poetry since 1990 has been in the process of a colorful change.  Poetry was written bolder, stronger, and with a more distinguished voice of opinion on self and worldly views.  However, the main focus of the time was on America’s relation to Poetry of Nature.  Contemporary poets are rooted in possessing a natural vision of the earth; unfortunately,  there are environmental concerns of global warming, deterioration of the ozone layer, and becoming an over-industrialized nation.  But despite the fact that the object they write about and love is becoming a total  wasteland, they still stay positive and write and dream of a better world.