\nMy cathedral is the forest,
\nThe pews are mossy banks;
\nThere a scarlet crested parson,
\nDrums insistently his thanks.
\nI have no need of temples
\nCarved in stone by hands of man,
\nMy cathedral is the forest,
\nMy heaven is the land.<\/p>\n
My altar is a meadow
\nThick carpeted with grass;
\nIts roof the vault of heaven,
\nEach day a sacred mass.
\nAnd I hear the feathered choir,
\nBees and crickets thrum the time,
\nThere ’s no hymn can take me higher
\nAnd no ritual more sublime.<\/p>\n
I care nothing for religion,
\nNor require a builded hall
\nTo sing paeans to creation
\nAnd give praises to the ALL.
\nWhen I die I’ll make no journey
\nTo another place above,
\nBut my bones will rot in glory,
\nAnd my cells return to Love.<\/p>\n
In my temple there’s no worship
\nTo a goddess or a god;
\nTrees are one, both male and female,
\nThere’s no gender in the sod;
\nWhile the symphony of seedling
\nBrings about all living things,
\nAnd the music of creation
\nIn every atom sings.<\/p>\n
I look about in wonder
\nAs I walk those pillared aisles,
\nAt the dapple-down of sunbeams
\nThat light leaf-litter tiles.
\nI’m in awe of the mosaics,
\nOf the plush and verdant green,
\nAnd the thought of its destruction
\nStrikes as nothing but profane.<\/p>\n
But we’re ruining the temple,
\nCarving up its living flesh;
\nIts walls are torn asunder
\nIn the name of corporate cash.
\nI beg you please rebuild it,
\nLet the forest stand up tall;
\nIt was put on earth for living,
\nFor the good of one and ALL.<\/p>\n
— Jeremy Frith<\/p>\n
Jeremy Frith died suddenly at age 64
\nof a heart attack on Dec. 8, 2009, at
\nMountain Meadow Farm, Nova Scotia, Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My cathedral is the forest, The pews are mossy banks; There a scarlet crested parson, Drums insistently his thanks. I have no need of temples Carved in stone by hands of man, My cathedral is the forest, My heaven is the land. My altar is a meadow Thick carpeted with grass; Its roof the vault […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[73,85],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-jeremy-firth","tag-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}