For all Nature’s gifts,
All praise:
For our sun, and all other suns.
For rain as it comes to us, and
For drought and flood.
For they are all natural
For all animals, fierce or friendly.
For birds and butterflies and reptiles and
For all species, everywhere and every kind.
For we are all related
For our human friends and loves:
For those we fear and those we hate.
For all saints and all murderers and
For all those who are neither.
For we are all related
For all languages,
For they bring the world to us
For all the arts,
For they restore our vision
For all knowledge wise enough to confess ignorance,
For that keeps us real
For human degradations when they happen to us,
For they are part of a cycle
For our spirit’s exaltations whenever they occur,
For they are part of a cycle
For disgrace and renewal,
For they, too, are part of a cycle
For depression and the lifting of burdens,
For they are part of a cycle
For pain and joy.
For rage and peace.
For growth and age.
For fear and courage.
For they are all natural, and remind us we are alive
For canyons, mountains, rivers, plains, plants, and rocks,
For they are all natural
For urban alleys, greasy Dumpsters, and concrete,
For they are all natural
For rats, vermin, vomit, plastic,
For they, also, are natural
For every risk that makes us grow,
For cancers, AIDS, and all other diseases,
For they are natural
For every chance we have to heal another,
Ourselves, or the Earth, and
For everything that helps us find our place
And leads us home
For all these too are natural
For death . . .
For Nature,
All One,
All accepting
For all of it
All of it . . .
All praise . . .
—In collaboration with C. J. Taylor