BACK TO THE GARDEN

We are a turbulent people
doubting institutions
demanding and dismissing
obsessed with our opinions

in my youthful past
Joni Mitchell wrote this
in her Woodstock narrative
we got to get ourselves back to the garden

while some of us were singing evangelical songs
inspired and earnest in 69
she was beautifully telling the story
of Yasgur’s farm
and a musical gathering there

yet now I’m left to wonder
how we pilgrims
most of whom were on a spiritual quest in some fashion then
could have so completely lost the clutch of each other
as well our once deferent conversations

some say innocence was lost then
but actually it was lost long before flowers and bibles wrangled
what fluttered from the cocoon of those tumultuous years has not been lovely

we make our laws
blame who we blame
fervor about the inadequacies of others
and quote that line from my back pages
all while the world is burning

yet a child does not have eyes to see the brooding soul
but we
we are a wrestling Jacob
fighting through the night

the little girl from the plains of Canada was right
and I keep praying
we got to get ourselves back to the garden
and too the Gardener

A poem by Greg Nelson
© 2022 by Poppie’s Hallel
(BMI. Admin. by Amplified Administration)

M

A poem by Greg Nelson
© 2022 by Poppie’s Hallel
(BMI. Admin. by Amplified Administration)