Gaia's Tears The heavens burst and life pours down To slake the thirst of earth, and give Refreshment to all things that live The birds, the trees, the flowers fair All earth's inhabitants must drink their fill And bless the heavenly clouds that spill This silver treasure, which her creatures spend And cannot hoard, life-blood of Gaia, Mother Earth, so freely shared with men: Her love and waters, upon which all depend, We sail upon her pools of tears, a salton sea In ages past and gone, first shed with agony When birth-pangs drew primordial life From within that vast prolific womb Thus water is our vehicle still, From watery birth to silent tomb. Poetry