A Poem for Today, Written in the 1950s.

KEEPING QUIET by Pablo Neruda (1904–1973)

Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language; let’s stop for one second, and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines; we would all be together in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victories with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused with total inactivity. Life is what it is about; I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence

might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go.

The Reckoning.

Looking back, it has been gathering momentum, the mad rush to achieve what we want, at any cost:

To reap the seas leaving plastic in our wake.

To demolish swathes of virgin forest, leaving desolation.

To channel rivers where we want them to go, leaving ecological wastelands.

To wage wars for our own ends, leaving trails of broken people,

Children sobbing, mothers weeping, fathers forlorn,

A march to foreign borders, forsaking safety.

Where will it end?

And now, a pestilence rages across our world, leaving devastation in its path.

But, giving us the opportunity to pause and reflect.

It is Time:

Nature and the universe agreed, it’s time to take stock.

For once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language; let’s stop for one second, and not move our arms so much.

Now I’ll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go.

Lynette Clements. 2020. The simplicity of language, the urgency of need.