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TAKEN FROM: FLAX-GOLDEN TALES

UNIT EIGHT: THE HUMAN CONDITION

 

GAIA[1]

Shreedhar Lohani

 

ShreedharThe searing wind among the withered palms—

The devouring rain--

The sea with its cavernous frothy mouth—                              

gaiaThe crooked beak of a mountain peak—

Time plucks at the world

On its gray gaunt wings—

The smell of mildew

Shrouds the house—                                                  

Turbulence and hunger

All around—

Yet—

She endures.

 

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[1]      Gaea or Gaia is the Greek Goddess for earth, and hence, a personification or a symbol of earth or the biosphere.  Other early religions had similar female figures, who like Gaia were gentle, feminine and nurturing, but also ruthlessly cruel to those who transgressed.  In Nepal, the Earth Goddess has many names, e.g.,  Prithvi, Bhu, or Vasundhara. Some modern biologists subscribe to the Gaia Hypothesis, which views the earth as a single organism. The scientific Gaia theory sees the Earth as a physiological system that is, in a sense, alive, and it denotes a systemic, cross-disciplinary, ecological approach to thinking about human culture as a part of nature, rather than apart from it.