A plea to the living planet we’ve wounded. This poem explores collective guilt, ecological grief, and the fragile hope that humanity can wake up before it’s too late. For anyone who has ever felt the Earth’s heartbeat beneath their feet – and heard it hurting.

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“Mother, Forgive Us.”

by Shelly Moore Caron

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Ungrateful little power-hungry fleas.

Mother, I cry to you from my knees.

I cannot blame you for your fury nor wrath,

nor your urge to wipe us off your map.

Mother, forgive the holes we’ve bored

without consent, without accord.

Forgive the oceans we’ve defiled,

the ancient forests we exiled.

Forgive the lives we’ve stripped away,

and natural laws we disobey.

Mother, I ache for the pain we’ve spread-

humans born, then bloodshed fed.

Yet some are waking, day by day,

wiping centuries of sleep away.

Some feel misguided,

some stand divided-

but still, there’s hope among the dust.

So, Mother…

forgive and unite us.

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“When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear. When that happens, the Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them.”

— Hopi Prophecy