Three Percent: a Riverain Blessing

2015-02-07 /

Three percent is all they say
The sweet water of a water planet
Three percent
The cool drink, the soft rain
Rare as blood, rare as luck, rare
To our wet hands, shining.

From the far sky, adrift in curds and blankets
Whips and knots, anvils towering thunder hammers
Rain the hand of kindness down
To our fields, our mouths, the dancing springs
And cold rivers, snaking the glens of Earth to the sky again.

Do we take you for granted, o three percent?
Do we curse you for flooding, pop our grumbrellas
On a wet walk to the office?
Not I.
Not when puddles leap for joy and silver makes the sky
A treasury. I tip my face to you, and appearances be damned
This gift is too precious: oceans’ breath, sky’s milk
Rivers’ song falling drop by drop
To my waiting skin.

Mark Green

Author of ATHEOPAGANISM: An Earth-Honoring Path Rooted in Science and ROUND WE DANCE: Creating Meaning Through Seasonal Rituals, Mark Green is the initiator of the Atheopagan path and editor at the Atheopaganism blog. He volunteers as a staffer to the Atheopagan Society Council to support the growth of Atheopaganism throughout the world. In his home of Sonoma County, California, in the occupied ancestral lands of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok peoples, he is best known as an environmental activist and founder of Sonoma County Conservation Action, the largest environmental activism group in his region. He continues to work in the conservation sphere, focusing particularly on protection of natural landscapes on California's federal public lands.