The impulse to write this poem came from reading a section of ‘Leaves of Grass’ by shaman/poet Walt Whitman; rearranged in verse by shaman/poet William Everson. (See below) Whitman’s poem is prophetic. It predicts the demise of the old priesthood and the arising of a new. The new priesthood will include a new breed of poets. When I read Whitman’s poem its words & spirit reminded me of a prophetic poem I had written very early in my poetic apprentice. The poem is called ‘Speak’. (See Below). I have incorporated parts ‘Speak’ in Song 32. ‘Speak’ also prophesies the arising of a new priesthood. The new priesthood consists of men & woman who have gone through the death & rebirth process that leads to the incarnation of the Self. In Song 32 I have widened the ‘death & rebirth’ theme to include a dying to the collective materialistic & consumeristic values which are devastating the Planet. The rebirth also involves an awakening to new values that protect & work with the Planet. In Song 32 the Planet Earth is a Living Being. I have used the word ‘Gaia’ to name this Living Being. According to Wikipedia ‘Gaia was the goddess or personification of the Earth, in ancient Greek religion, one of the Greek Primordial Deities. Gaia was the Great Mother of all.’ In the poem’ Gaia’ also includes the philosophical idea of Anima Mundi… the World Soul. The new priests & priestesses are Gaia’s servants. They are her emissaries. They work with her. They are the emerging face of what has been described as; ‘the Great Turning’. According to Buddhist Scholar & Environmental Activist Joanna Macy: ‘The Great Turning is the essential adventure of our time. The shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life sustaining civilization.’1) Information on the Great Turning & Joanna Macy is freely available on the internet. It is my experience that the World Soul, or Nature, (or Gaia) is actively working to awaken people. I remember a number of early dreams in which I was woken by voices saying ‘he’s waking up now.’ I have spoken to others who have had similar experiences. I believe these voices are emissaries, part of the World Soul. They are actively seeking to awaken woman & men from the collective sleep that envelops much of our culture. They seek woman & men who will awaken & become conscious & as they do so, express their uniqueness as they serve the Living Earth.

Speak

You ask for ‘a few words’ –
I have a night-time of speaking within me!

This only will I say:

A new priesthood is called forth.

Initiates from the land of the dead

Priests and priestess’s
Of the broken body of the One –
They are summonsed from the heart of us.

Known only to the returning ‘Other’
They leave our organisation
To serve the greater all.

They ask no tithe, but anonymity.

We see them not, yet,
Their presence grows.

Alone they assist the many.

Kevin Moran – 6/8/01 2)

THERE WILL SOON be no more priests; their work is done.
They may wait awhile, perhaps a generation or two, dropping
off by degrees.
A superior breed will take their place;
The gangs of kosmos and prophets en masse shall take their
place.
A new order shall rise and they shall be the priests of man,
And every man shall be his own priest.
The churches built under their umbrage shall be the churches
of men and women.
Through the divinity of themselves shall the kosmos, and the
new breed of poets
Be interpreters of men and woman, and of all events and
things.
They shall find their inspiration in real objects today,
symptoms of the past and future.
They shall not deign to defend immortality or God, or the
perfection of things,
Or liberty or the exquisite beauty and reality of the soul.
They shall arise in America, and be responded to from the
remainder of the earth.

Walt Whitman, American Bard: The Original Preface to Leaves of Grass
Arranged in Verse with Woodcuts by William Everson 3)

1) Joanna Macy source of quote unknown.
2) Kevin Moran, unpublished poem.
3) Quoted William Everson: The Shamans Call, Interviews, Introduction, and Commentaries, by Steven Hermann, Pg 138.