By Davis Poet Laureate, Eve Bessier

Eve read her poem, Global Mosaic,  for the Cool Davis Earth Day Celebration on April 27th, Call of the Wolf.  As she describes the familiar geography, she reminds us just how precious it all is, and how we must treasure and protect it all.  

 

 

Global Mosaic

Weightless
inside the Cupola,
a 360 degree dome
of windows
on the International
Space Station,

The view below
is a mosaic
of geography.

The Horn of Africa,
sheds a golden strand
of lion’s mane into
a cobalt sea’s embrace.

That iconic Renaissance
boot of Italy kicks
at the azure history
of the Mediterranean Sea.

Emerald and topaz
pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle together abundance
at the delta of the Amazon.

Wide white spirals
of weather systems
blanket the Gulf Stream,
exposing only Florida’s
toes at Key West.­­

The circuit board symmetry
of Los Angeles spreads
under a sepia haze
from clear ocean
toward ochre desert.

The South Pacific
is dotted with atolls,
where the deepest seas
go from Lapis Lazuli
to Zuni turquoise.

Steel towers in Taipei
cluster between
a grey river’s curve
and dormant volcanoes.

The meandering scroll
of the world’s oldest wall
outlines northern China.

Bold brushstrokes
in every shade of grey
are frozen rivers
displayed in the Arctic
as necklaces of ice.
 
All of it spinning.

The ruins at Machu Picchu
speeding through space
at 1000 miles per hour.

The human race
held to this traveling
geographic mosaic
by mere gravity, air
water and a most
fragile atmosphere.

Our sojourn here is brief,
yet we tread with heavy feet
on Earth’s ephemeral beauty
as if it were invincible;
an eternal jewel of creation,
instead of a miraculous balance,
a once-in-a-Milky Way Eden
it is our honor and privilege
to love and protect.