The Birds Stopped Singing

For Earth Day, 2023, while listening to the birds sing, while watching them fly.

The Birds Stopped Singing
The day the birds stopped singing
And we finally believed the cries of the earth,
The day it was too late to quell the rising tides,
Too late to quench the burning forests,
Too late to quash the hole in the sky,
All that was left was to mourn the future,
As the future mourned for us.

G-d of all,
We still hear the birds singing, for now,
So perhaps there is still time
To save the planet,
To save Your handiwork,
To save the future.
The hills will skip with joy,
And the rivers will gurgle with laughter,
When we finally listen to the voice of creation.
Give us ears, Author of life,
To hear the cries of the grieving earth.

© 2023 Alden Solovy and ToBendLight

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Please check out These Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah and my other CCAR Press volumes: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life, which can also be purchased as the Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

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Photo by Alden Solovy

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