Where Here IsHow will we know where here is
until it tells us, until this oak speaks
its story and these grasses whisper
what their mothers said to them
when they were seedling? The crow
overhead is not just a carrier of
crowness. It speaks with the caw
of its own life. The air about us
is this air carrying smell messages
from the majesty of this place.
Knowing where here is - is paying
back the world with our attention,
not planting a heavy foot on the shore
of the earth like a conquistador.
Nils Peterson - Named Poet Laureate April 2009 from Santa Clara Valley. His mission is to get the people of Silicon Valley to pay attantion, to develop "a consciousness about this place where we live," which we can expland to included wherever we are.
