The following is a set of alternative takes on the five covenants that focus primarily on Creation’s engagement with the Earth. When we view the Earth as divine Mother, our relationship and understanding with the world around us changes. How we view ourselves changes, too. If Earth is Mother and we are part of Her sacred Creation, then it is our duty to tend to Her and care for Her, just like She tends and cares for us. With this view in mind, humanity has the role of a Gardener, worshiping the earth and keeping Her holy.
– G.A. and H.B.
I Will Remember
After the Noahic Covenant, Genesis 9:13-15
I told you that I would.
And I have.
What I did not take into account was you drowning yourself.
The waters are beyond my control now,
the sun shines hotter than it ever used to.
My Creation is dying just as it did that day I decided
enough was enough
But this time it’s not my fault.
You were given something sacred and melted it down for scrap metal.
You were born of the water of my womb
and now it will be your grave.
But the water isn’t wary of you.
The water is warm and the mud is cold.
When you swim in that green, green water, you feel like you are back where you began.
You are reminded of where you came from
and that this place will always be there for you to come back to,
even if you do not remember my name.
The Altar
After the Abrahamic Covenant, Genesis 12-15
I gave to you my Being.
My body.
But you weren’t supposed to tear me to shreds,
rip out my bile and drink it instead.
When you were little, I tried to teach you,
tried to remind you,
if you drank up my waters too quickly,
they would be gone.
If you ate up my berries,
those red stains would be all you would have to remember me by.
I tried to remind you,
but you did not listen.
So now oil seeps its way into places it has never been before,
prying open untouched reliquaries, holy places laid bare for all to see.
There are parts of me that were supposed to remain buried.
Not every part of me is for the taking.
There are places I keep hidden for good reason–I know
which you do not and cannot know.
If you build an altar, remember–
you took all that was ever given and now
the only thing left to feed me is you.
So, feed me.
Feed me and in return I will feed on you like compost.
Consume you like you’ve consumed me.
I am a Garden
After the Davidic Covenant, 2 Samuel 7:11-13
God made you a promise–
“I will give you rest from all your enemies”*
and make you a house
in my body.
“I will make you a house”*
where your offspring will dwell–your Creation
so that you will never rest from this fruitful springing and playing on my being.
I will establish a kingdom there, a throne–
but it wasn’t meant to be made out of
iron and steel, oil and muck.
It wasn’t meant to be made out of
the broken limbs and ligaments of my body strewn across my land,
disjointed and disfigured into “a home.”
Am I not enough as I am?
God said I was,
but you didn’t listen.
* 2 Samuel 7:11.
New Life
After the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Eve bled for new life
and so do I.
I’m bleeding oil from my very core.
I am giving and giving and they are taking and taking.
I shudder as they empty me.
All I ever did was love them.
Forgive them, they know not what they do.
I wish I could tell them the truth but
I am a Mother, a bearer,
and I will bear Creation even as they gut me
and I will bury them in my soil when they die.
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Stunning work! Thank you both for something as new as it is ancient and so well put together. Put me on your list for everything.
revdschaper@gmail.com
Thank you for this brilliant invitation to see the covenants still speaking truth.
These pieces are poignant, creative and beautiful; some of the best content we have ever seen on Bearings. These authors have made a stunning contribution to the literature of eco-spirituality and environmental justice and we look for more of their imaginative work in the future.
The term “biblical” is thrown around these days as a modifier of eco-apocalypse. But these poems are the real biblical deal–lamentation, yearning. The key is “I am a Mother, a bearer.” I can imagine these being composed by Rachel or Miriam or Ruth or Hosea’s wife or Mary, and only now being discovered in sealed jars in Middle Eastern caves.