Claire Lee on Greta Thunberg
Letter to Greta: From Artist to Activist
published in et al. 2020 by CoBo Social
WILDFLOWER
Because life isn’t all about growing up, it’s about growing wild
Flowers don’t command and don’t make you bow but there is dignity and
grace in a bloom in an unexpected place being gentle and fragile
shouts inside a slender stem that only few can hear.
Generous father of the colossal sky
She can almost touch him upside-down inside a small raindrop on
her petal, less than one millimetre in size
She feels sad for his power of all-knowing is the loneliest presence
He loses pleasure of small ways
patience for small ideas to encourage kindness
A pathetically small flower experiences inner qualities, she begins
to create her own peace.
Watching birds and bees, she learns what it means
to practice the excellence of one’s kind to be fully being.
Earth’s wounds and their delicate seams
Mother sits alone with quiet rebellion within. That is why
all
things
break.
Father sets fire at one place and outbursts of cries on the other end
Life remains serene and the world is a mess.
She sees silent weepers walking through the meadow
Depression is thunder without a voice, and voices without a sound
This little heart of a flower stumbles down without a beat because it beats too fast
Daring to his ignorance she closes the petals to make a fist
But it doesn’t last.
The quiet ones who want to be understood always end up understanding the most and
Disappear.
One by one all stems are bending,
as if he is learning the art of flower arranging
Sadly, instead of empathy he learns only in tragedies.
Quiet determination of a warrior. Her original intention will guide her through the dark
as well as the brightest. The ego thinks
The spirit knows. It knows the road
before light first appears
As far as my little wildflower can visualize tomorrow
Land to sink but the entire meadow will float.
