Poem: "Entropy's Blessing"
This is the first freebie for the August 2, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl. aldersprig and wyld_dandelyon got into a great discussion about different types of corruption, and where corruption and redemption meet, including a reference to rot. So that got me thinking about compost and the detritus food web, which I absolutely love as manifestations of entropy's positive aspects. I offer you this poem as a celebration of those types of corruption which are necessary for redemption. You can also read my post on " How to Make a Compost Pile."
Entropy's Blessing
The compost heap breeds life from death,
health from infestation.
Refuse rots down into fresh clean soil:
dark, black, rich, fragrant, burgeoning with promise.
It is all that is reviled, ignored, denigrated, put down;
and yet it is pure in its own way,
holy in its harmonious destruction.
The detritus food web takes what was
and turns it into what will be.
Microherds of bacteria
teem in the warm, moist depths.
Fungi spin threads of white and gold,
binding the pile together.
Sowbugs graze on the growing things;
beetles and centipedes hunt
through tiny tunnels;
wolf spiders prowl the surface.
Earthworms eat and excrete,
drilling their way through once-living matter.
A toad burrows into the damp fluff
and devours the invertebrates.
This is entropy's blessing:
it takes what syntropy leaves behind,
restacks the deck, and offers
raw materials with a knowing smile.
It is corruption that is redemption,
two different phases
in one great cycle.