From “Thirty Poems of Healing”
By Tina Datsko de Sánchez

Mother Earth weeps for her children—
day after day, rain drumming down.
She cleanses herself and cleanses us—
of our greed that pillaged and polluted her,
of our hatred that pocked her skin with wars,
of our cruel haste that poisoned her air.

She weeps for us to save us from ourselves.
Let us weep also for the death and inequity we have caused.
Let us shed our narrow concept of self and other,
to embrace oneness with all creation,
to bubble over with compassion,
our hearts a living spring,
tending the thirst of our neighbor.

Tina Datsko de Sánchez serves as Poet in Residence at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach. She is the author of the bilingual poetry book The Delirium of Simón Bolívar. Her four-book series of interfaith spiritual poetry inspired by Rumi and Hafiz is forthcoming from The Pilgrim Press.