Earthseed
Sunlight and water engendered a form,
Once the planet became just a little less warm,
Made up of bacteria well able to swarm
That could thrive in all climates, endure any storm.
Divinities didn't create planet Earth,
But scientists might just've witnessed the birth
Of an organism of far greater worth
Than deities of cosmic girth.
The Earth was blind, but now it sees,
By the light of its new-found faculties,
A candle lit by those whose knees
Wouldn't bend for kings nor deities.
With instrumentation we can now show
What before we couldn't hope to know,
From protons and photons to galaxies aglow,
From space/time and energy to how life can grow.
We've traced our genetics to eons long past,
When the new molten Earth had cooled at last,
When enough CO2 had been out-gassed,
When the moon first drew tides on oceans vast.
Once life struggled up from wherever it came,
It kept the Earth's temp'rature nearly the same,
Though the sun puts out more of its hot solar flame,
We simply metabolize it like it's a game.
Mars and Venus, our neighbors, are sterile, we've found,
One's too hot, one's too cold, not a bug on the ground,
It's only on Earth that life moves around,
Like Goldilocks here, life laid itself down.
Now we're searching throughout all celestial space
To discover another intelligent race,
For anything there that can maybe keep pace,
But we've heard not a peep, not even a trace.
Nowhere else in the universe have we yet seen
A stable wet planet that's even as green,
A globe with an atmospherical screen,
With a chemical brew that could stir up a gene.
No gods and no aliens do we discern,
We need them the less the more we can learn,
Our fortunes, our fates and our lives do not turn
On whether we're saved or whether we'll burn.
Apparently then we're a planet alone,
All the problems we have are solely our own,
So that what we have planted is what will have grown,
And what we will harvest is what we have sown.
Once the planet became just a little less warm,
Made up of bacteria well able to swarm
That could thrive in all climates, endure any storm.
Divinities didn't create planet Earth,
But scientists might just've witnessed the birth
Of an organism of far greater worth
Than deities of cosmic girth.
The Earth was blind, but now it sees,
By the light of its new-found faculties,
A candle lit by those whose knees
Wouldn't bend for kings nor deities.
With instrumentation we can now show
What before we couldn't hope to know,
From protons and photons to galaxies aglow,
From space/time and energy to how life can grow.
We've traced our genetics to eons long past,
When the new molten Earth had cooled at last,
When enough CO2 had been out-gassed,
When the moon first drew tides on oceans vast.
Once life struggled up from wherever it came,
It kept the Earth's temp'rature nearly the same,
Though the sun puts out more of its hot solar flame,
We simply metabolize it like it's a game.
Mars and Venus, our neighbors, are sterile, we've found,
One's too hot, one's too cold, not a bug on the ground,
It's only on Earth that life moves around,
Like Goldilocks here, life laid itself down.
Now we're searching throughout all celestial space
To discover another intelligent race,
For anything there that can maybe keep pace,
But we've heard not a peep, not even a trace.
Nowhere else in the universe have we yet seen
A stable wet planet that's even as green,
A globe with an atmospherical screen,
With a chemical brew that could stir up a gene.
No gods and no aliens do we discern,
We need them the less the more we can learn,
Our fortunes, our fates and our lives do not turn
On whether we're saved or whether we'll burn.
Apparently then we're a planet alone,
All the problems we have are solely our own,
So that what we have planted is what will have grown,
And what we will harvest is what we have sown.