Have you not known, grasshopper?


Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to live in;
who brings princes to naught,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

Isaiah 40:21-23



What a relief and what a cause
of humility right down to my exoskeleton.

The shaping of the earth
and the timing of the rains

the rising of the sun
and the spreading of the stars on the sky fabric

the making and crowning of kings
and the dethroning of prideful powers

does not depend on me
a grasshopper in the field of the world.

But the world does depend on me
to hop and nibble on the grass

and stop and take notice with my compound eyes
of the sun, the sky, the muscle and immodesty of kings

and with my mandibles in full song
let praise and protest rise up above me.

Comments

  1. Hi, just wanted to thank you for these words - they are beautiful! I am a Uniting Church minister (Queensland, Australia), and I'm wondering if you'd be willing to let me include this poem in our weekly news bulletin? I would obviously include your name and a link to this page. THanks and blessings, Kath

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