Processes of Creation - Poem by Raymond A. Foss

Processes of the land, of the water, the air
of plants, of animals, of man
natural processes, those of man,
within the ordered world
regulated change

Laws of attraction, of entropy
the falling down, the falling apart,
the cycles of life, of nature
the aggregating, the separating,
the dying and the renewal,
the way of things,
balanced and in equilibrium,
for the most part, on the earth.

Land changed by tunneling ants, by grazing sheep
growing plants, roots deep into the soil
Uplifting frost heaves, flooded rice paddies
Deforestation in the Amazon jungle, Irrigation ditches
Glaciers scowering the earth, retreating in their melting

Changing from hunter-gatherers to the beginning of farming
the domestication of animals, agribusiness harvesting
moving to industrialization, urbanization

Desertification, Fire
the cycle of river to beaver pond to marsh to bog to field to forest
Reforestation in the New England woods

We see erosion of the rock, the land, by wind,
by water in the sea, the lake, the river,
by the action of ice and rain, changing the land

Continental drift and subduction,
earthquake and volcano, renew and alter the
surface, the face of the earth

started 8/1/07, added 8/19/07, 8/24/07, 8/26/07, 10/2/07