God’s Letter to the Ocean
Aurora, CO
2020, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
My dear and wonderful daughter—
every day I wish to help,
to come down in heavenly fire upon your tormentors,
yet you and I both know that cannot be, for I am only love.
I understand your affliction, your pain is mine to bear,
but you know we must wait.
The first day: I cried for your children, who choke and drown
in plastic bags and bottles and bins
and did nothing to deserve it;
yet they, our birds and fish and mammals,
they suffer and die for others’ sins,
like I once did.
The second day: I mourned your backbone—the coral reefs,
which boil and squirm, unable to move
as acid descends upon them and burns them
and reduces them to ash and dust.
They are our faithful servants, who care for the children,
yet they receive no reward, only agony and death.
The third day: I wept for the waters and the waves,
which grow larger by the hour,
as your brother, the sky, grows warmer.
Fossil fuels poison him and threaten your sister, the land,
by forcing your ice to melt and flood,
which harms your sister’s children and may destroy her coasts.
The fourth day: I shed tears for the river-mouths,
which have become like Gehenna,
devoid of life and barren, death in water.
I told them to farm and grow, and be stewards of the earth,
but in the desert I warned them to keep the manna, to not be wasteful;
the dead zones of the world are wounds in my side.
The fifth day: I grieved for your chest, riddled with oily swords of men,
metal drills sink into your heart, searching for your blood.
They find it and burn it for their cars, their warmth, their plastic;
it rises and scorches my beautiful sky—the cycle continues.
Then out of the wound comes the chemicals:
arsenic, mercury, and lead; they poison fish and beach whales.
The sixth day: I suffered for our sons and daughters once more,
for I gave humanity knowledge to eat and be filled,
but they abused that power and live in gluttony,
and overuse the resources that I gave them.
Overfishing, slaughtering whales and sharks for soup,
and this excludes the children of the land and sky.
Today is the seventh day; I now wait
for humanity to take up their responsibility
and return to the garden of harmony and peace.
You must trust in them, for they are still my children;
just as the creatures of the sea are yours.
Have faith in them, and they will rise.
Human beings truly are love, for I made them.
They just forgot and now need to remember.
With love, patience, and hope,
Your Father.
Reflection
Reflection
I chose to write a poem because I felt that this medium was the one that provided me the most freedom of expression. I am a practicing Catholic, so God is a massive part of my life and I recognize Him constantly in nature. Pope Francis recently has encouraged Christians to begin to search for God in the beauty of nature, as the universe is how God has revealed himself to humanity—it is his own work of art. I wrote the poem with the Seven Days of Creation mirroring six major problems the ocean is facing (with the seventh day being a call for humanity to act). The idea of “father and daughter” between God and the ocean appeals to me because it establishes a more personal and loving relationship between Him and nature. And humanity’s destruction of nature has become a direct attack on God, as we are tearing his painting to shreds. The oceans are not the only places that are being affected. However, they are certainly the most important, not only because they take up most of Earth’s surface, but also because a giant majority of all living things (50-80%) reside in them. I have always loved the ocean, and now I have a chance to save it, not only by reducing my own carbon/plastic footprint, but also encouraging others to do the same.