What is The Bestiary poem?
The Bestiary by Joanna Macy is a poem inspired by a deeply emotional gathering in Minnesota during 1981 that focused on the theme of ecological awareness and conservation. The poem reflects the sentiment and urgency of the occasion where people were confronted with the harsh realities of species extinction.
By listing various endangered animals, Macy's poem serves as a literary homage to these creatures, highlighting the broader ecological crisis. It taps into the themes of loss, connection, and the shared responsibility of humans to their environment.
Although it specifically addresses animals and not plants or trees, the poem encapsulates a broader message about the fragility and interdependence of all life forms on Earth.
It is read in the Work that Reconnects ritual The Bestiary.
The Bestiary
Short-tailed albatross
Whooping crane
Gray wolf
Woodland caribou
Hawksbill Sea Turtle
Rhinoceros
The list of endangered species grow longer every year. With too many names to hold in our minds, how do we honor the passing of life? What funerals or farewells are appropriate?
Reed warbler
Swallowtail butterfly
Bighorn sheep
Indian python
Howler monkey
Sperm whale
Blue whale
Dive me deep, brother whale, in this time we have left. Deep in our mother ocean where once I swam, gilled and finned. The salt from those early seas still runs in my tears. Tears aren’t enough anymore. Give me a song, a song for a sadness too vast for my heart, for a rage too wild for my throat.
Giant sable antelope
Wyoming toad
Polar bear
Grizzly bear
Brown bear
Bactrian camel
Nile crocodile
Ooze me, alligator, in the mud whence I came. Belly me slow in the rich primordial soup, cradle of our molecules. Let me wallow again, before we drain your swamp and pave it over.
Gray bat
Ocelot
Pocket mouse
Sockeye salmon
Hawaiian goose
Audouin's gull
Quick, lift off. Sweep me high over the coast and out, farther out. Don’t land here. Oil spills coat the beach, rocks, sea. I cannot spread my wings glued with tar. Fly me from what we have done, fly me far.
Golden parakeet
West African ostrich
Florida panther
Galapagos penguin
Imperial pheasant
Mexican prairie dog
Hide me in a hedgerow, badger. Can’t you find one? Dig me a tunnel through leaf mold and roots, under the trees that once defined our fields. My heart is bulldozed and plowed over. Burrow me a labyrinth deeper than longing.
Thick-billed parrot
Blue pike
Snow leopard
Molokai thrush
California condor
Lotus blue butterfly
Crawl me out of here, caterpillar. Spin me a cocoon. Wind me to sleep in a shroud of silk, where in patience my bones will dissolve. I’ll wait as long as all creation if only it will come again — and I take wing.
Atlantic Ridley sea turtle
Coho salmon
Helmeted hornbill
Marine otter
Humpback whale
Steller sea lion
Monk seal
Swim me out beyond the ice floes, mama. Where are you? Boots squeeze my ribs, clubs drum my fur, the white world goes black with the taste of my blood.
Gibbon
Sea gazelle
Cheetah
Chinchilla
Asian elephant
African elephant
Sway me slowly through the jungle. There still must be jungle somewhere. My heart drips with green secrets. Hose me down by the waterhole; there is buckshot in my hide. Tell me old stories while you can remember.
For more information about the group ritual, refer to The Bestiary and its original source.
