Meadow Measure

“Whatever preserves and enhances this meadow in the natural cycles of its transformation is good; whatever opposes this meadow or negates it is not good.”
— Thomas Berry, “The Meadow across the Creek,” Ch. 2, The Great Work

Beyond the draining silt, the hazy sky,
the etch of chemical wonders spread too high,
the over-grazing forced by market tools,
what pallid grass is made from tribal rules?

The meadow shows how fair our trading pacts,
how beneficial falls our realty tax,
the justice dealt to hands that work the fields,
the human cost of ever-rising yields.

The marks our practice stamps on all this ground --
the only stage on which our drama’s found --
define the gauge our rights and wrongs to measure,
how true we are as stewards of earthly treasure.

Broaden now the ethic handed down,
cloak the pasture’s grass in judge’s gown.

29 December 2005

First-place winner for traditional poetry, 2007
The Poetry Council of North Carolina