Ground Swell

Did you feel that?!
Seemed like the ground moved.
Not like a shake or quake,
More like a swell,
A rolling shifting in slow motion.
Then it was gone.

So I ran to a hill
Beyond my house,
Where I could see things
On a grander scale.
And there it was,
So slow you would miss it
If you stared straight at it.

Waves were rolling across the landscape.
Dear God — it was powerful to watch,
To see it building up,
To glimpse the changes it was moving toward.
And as I looked,
I saw the tension of that groundswell
Mounting in the West.
I felt the earth move again,
And saw at last the people in their millions
Powering the waves.

Frustration, tension, energy,
Forming like an earthquake
Looking for the trigger,
The direction, the release for that terrible,
Wonderful energy to flow.
People, the sea, the earth,
All one thing.
No separation.
Bodies, mind, energy,
The earth and sea moving as one.

Then, on the horizon I could see it coming.
I saw that awe-full power,
Shifting and transforming
The shape of things.
Pushing over the old forms.
Like some new strength of a growing thing,
Splitting open rocks,
And pushing obstacles aside.
Truly a wonder.
Somehow no more destructive than Spring,
Breaking open the old seed cases,
And transforming into the new.

And here it comes –
People finding a focus for their longing for change.
Finding a trigger of release
To shatter the old imprisonment
Of manipulation by a system
Needing ever greater production and destruction –
Ever greater conflict with opposing views.

Here it comes –
That transcending moment
Of a catalyst — a union
Of millions seeking release —
A focus for that new life —
Technological breakthrough —
A ground swell
Changing the face of things.

Art by Julie Haile

Copyright ©2005 Tony Crisp