Earth Day didn’t happen until 1970. Vachel Lindsay of Springfield, Illinois wrote the following poem in 1913, and while not one of his best, it is one of his better poems. I will be privileged to recite this poem at Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, Saturday, April 24 at an event concerning Chief Black Hawk presented by a nationally acclaimed Black Hawk scholar. It speaks to the cause of Earth Day, though Vachel didn’t know it then and few people know it today. I know it, and that is why I am happy to share it here. The poem is public domain.
The Black Hawk War of the Artists
by Vachel Lindsay
Hawk of the Rocks,
Yours is our cause today,
Watching your foes
Here in our war array,
Young men we stand,
Wolves of the west at bay.
——– Power, power for war
——- Comes from these trees divine
——–Power from the boughs,
——– Boughs where the dew-beads shine.
——– Power from the cones –
——– Yea, from the breath of the pine!
Power to restore
All that the white band mars.
See the dead east
Crushed with the iron cars,
Chimneys black
Blinding the sun and stars.
Hawk of the pines,
Hawk of the plain-winds fleet,
You shall be king
Here in the iron street,
Factory and forge
Trodden beneath your feet.
There will be proud trees
Grow as they grow by streams.
There will be proud thoughts
Walk as in warrior dreams.
There will be proud deeds
Bloom as when battle gleams!
Warriors of Art
We will hold counsel there,
Hewing in stone
Things for the trapper fair.
Painting the gray
Veils that the spring moons wear.
This is revenge,
This one tremendous change.
Making new towns
Lit wth the star-fire strange,
Wild as the dawn
Gilding the bison range.
All the young men
Chanting your cause that day,
Red-men new-made
Out of the Saxon clay.
Strong and redeemed,
Bold in your war-array.
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There are several aspects to like and like less about this poem. Given the time, the attention and pizza, I could talk your anchovies off about it. But that opportunity is for another time. Today’s time is to make Vachel’s dream for the future our call to action today on Earth Day and through the rest of the days that are ours.
