<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">The Endangered Species Act</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">(February 22, 2017)</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><i style="font-size: 14px;">Mysteries are not solved,</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>they are entered upon</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Laurence Freeman</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">This is not my river</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Nor is it yours</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Not his river, not hers</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">No country, no map</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Could own it</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">River is all</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">River has been</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Is and will be</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Eternal present through all ages</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who inspired us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who loved us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who nourished us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who wished us gone</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who betrayed us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who hated us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who fought</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who won</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who lost</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who wept</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All who saw</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All unseen</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">There is none</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Not here</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">All Species</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Every one</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">We are this</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">This is us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">And on this particular day</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Some men and women</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Further deconstruct us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Into extinction</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">On this day in the East</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">A certain highly educated arrogance</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Settles into sessions</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Along the river called there Potomac</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">To presume to whittle down</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">A hard won, grace given awe -</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">The interconnection of all Being</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">You know not what you do</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">How is it possible to forgive ignorance?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">You know not what you do</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Out of somewhere compassion blooms</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Heart? Flower? Wellspring? </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Metaphor is but a limitation</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">An imitation, an innocent</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Reaching for the flower of the moon</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Above our crib</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">To know, to want, to touch</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">What is this I see?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">What is this I feel?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Why do I want this?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Only true metaphor?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Everything is Everything -</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Honing in on particular things </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Emotions, connections, weather in our sky</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">IS is the verbal connector</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Is is this Mystery</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">The world is us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">It is not yours</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Theirs or mine</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">It is us, it is in us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">We are it –</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Sacred depths metaphor</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Can only half conjure</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">And on this day, to the North</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Along the river there called Missouri </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Mothers, grandmothers and children</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Stand on treaty land</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Surrounded by men, tanks, weapons</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">And the entire fossil fuel industry</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">A circle of aggression</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">In a noose set to tighten</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">This the last day of standing for Life</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">At Standing Rock</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">We endangered species</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Act as we always have - extravagant bodies </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Specks of spectrum fusing</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Flaring next to each other</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">In wild and subtle </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Pythagorean combinations cornicupian </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Be they feather, bark, scale, skin</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">dapple, stipple, fur, shell</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Wellspring’s bubbling waters</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">We be as we be</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">In all manners of being</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">While extinction increases</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Living decreases</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Even though dammed</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">River flows to the bay</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Bay flows to the ocean</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Ocean takes us in</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">In this moment we live</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">In this moment we are alive</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Kate Dougherty</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></body></html>