I adore the poetry of Marge Piercy, and “Toad Dreams” in particular has been speaking to me lately. When human affairs seem to be spiraling out of control, I find comfort in the perspective given by the dramas of the natural world. Any given colony of ants is living through an era of ruthless colonial expansion, any migrating bird is in the midst of a grueling exodus, and any carnivore on the hunt is living on the knife’s edge of hunger. Whatever strife we may find in the human world, we are not alone in facing it. Every living creature can empathize with the way our heartbeats sometimes quicken in fear.
The dream of toads: we rarely
credit what we consider lesser
life with emotions big as ours,
but we are easily distracted,
abstracted.
~Nate Clark