In sleet and rain of Edinburgh
a cathedral rises from the deeps.
The salt of sea and old coal blur
veil her face in grey-cast sheets.
On her western pediment
within tympanum carved of stone
sits Christ triumphant and in judgement
where he calls us all to atone.
I stand before him, my head bowed
as I contemplate our shared guilt,
with mea culpas weighing on my brow
for the follies fallen man has built.
And so we’re burning Eden down
with flaming swords that we still wield
as once vast forests shrink and brown
and fallow lie once verdant fields.
Where trees once stood, smokestacks rear
their heads belching fumes up high
and in the deeps, the oceansphere’s
no more a garden for octopi.
For in this our earthly commonweal
that was a gift that’s given free
we prove that purgatory’s real
because we ourselves have made it be.
A whisper came from the carved face
to walk into this stony womb
where colored light and incense trace
a path to overcome the gloom:
Forgiveness for our many faults
comes when we change our ways.
There in this temple’s holy vault
I vow to fight Eden’s decay.
In Edinburgh I found Eden
in a vision of what can be.
For we are by no means beaten
and we can do it, you and me.
A meditation on COP29 and climate change. Worked in a Beatles reference, too.