Welcome to Planet Earth,
where books written by dead men
tell the living how to live.

Where children who do not know how to live
teach their children how to live.

Where children pray for miracles
using minds that are made of miracles
with clasped hands that are made of miracles.

Where children wander in search of God
upon feet that are made of God
looking with eyes that are made of God.

Where giant-brained monsters swim the seas
and we fill their bellies with plastic
while searching the stars for aliens.

Where poison blackens the air and the water
because we all need jobs to stay alive.

Where we can’t stop dropping bombs on children
because it’s somebody’s job to make those bombs.

Where thunderous beauty is overlooked
and paved over with a parking lot
for a shop that helps women feel beautiful.

Welcome to Planet Earth,
full of elephant tears and whale bones,
of metal beasts and flesh machines,
of forest graveyards and bulldozed dreams,
of vagrant witches and shopping cart saints,
of sprouting seeds and unrecognized potential,
of unanswered questions and pregnant suspense.

Welcome to Planet Earth,
where we haven’t quite yet figured out
that we are home.

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37 responses to “Welcome To Planet Earth”

  1. Maybe you could make “liking” your posts more clear for readers.
    I discovered that i could like this post by clicking on the like number (only 1 at the time) at the top. I think a lot more people would be liking this post – and others if “likes” were more clearly asked for. 😉

    Great work & art Caitlin. Thank You.

    1. Thanks for pointing this out. And I agree, it should be more prominent if possible.

      1. Yes, that’s a tiny, not very intuitive button! The opposite of Caity’s loud and clear voice. Nearly 10,000 views and only 8 likes? Gotta make it easier to spot.

  2. What exactly is the solution then? It is easy to point out the problems but not so much the solutions.

    1. The solution is easy.

      Stop the killing!
      Stop the polluting!

      I did it now you do it.

      1. Jef, easy to say but, as with most things, the devil is in the details. How exactly will you stop the killing? How will you stop bad men and women throughout the world who want to kill?

        What is your definition of “polluting”? How exactly will you stop it?

        1. Info – BullShit …..Stop killing goes without explanation…it just means what it says …stop it! All of you who are doing it….STOP it!

          Those men and women who want to kill…stop them…just stop them!

          Do you really need a definition for pollution?

          The solution to pollution is decidedly NOT dilution!!!!!

          The entire planet is POLLUTED with DILUTED POLLUTION. Is that a SOLUTION? Fuck no.

          1. Jef, again I ask how exactly do you propose to “…stop them…just stop them!”?

            If you define pollution as anything that is not organically from nature and cannot be returned to nature then what you are calling for is the complete destruction of every economy in the world and the very end of civilization itself. Good luck getting that “solution” accepted worldwide.

            1. you are the pollution. Lets start with you just stopping. Just. Stop. 😉

        2. Wake up, darling.
          This is poetry, not a political manifesto.
          She is simply describing a reality.
          A reality that even mainstream liberal media and social-democratic parties are denying, talking about “common sense solutions”, trying to convince us that yes, something is wrong, but by sticking to this system and this economic model we’ll eventually sort everything out, poverty will be vanquished, the planet will prosper etc.
          The fuck.
          The planet is dying.
          Democracy is moribund.
          Inequalities throughout the planet are rising fast.
          I don’t know where we should start from, but this system is shit and if we go on like this, like the “reasonable, middle ground people” you probably are voting we are fucked. Actually, I think there is no coming back. We ARE fucked.

      1. Aware of what?

        1. Of all that Caitlyn wrote about. First step to addressing the issues

          1. Being aware of a problem is a first step but it is not a solution.

            1. That is true of course but a necessary first step. Then discussion with all sides represented. After that then a solution can arise. Otherwise any “solution” is individual, or single collective to control the rest. Ego

              Who knows what the solution is?

              Until all the pre work is done, it cannot be known.

              1. How can one do “pre work” on a solution if one does not now what the solution is?! The pre work to cut down trees is not the same as the pre work to plant trees.

                “…individual, or single collective to control the rest.”

                The only way to prevent this is to prevent such power from existing at all – and it shouldn’t exist. So then who/what will be in charge of what kind of system? How will it be enforced?

  3. Same. Would you mind explaining the exquisitely beautiful part? Because I can’t get past the sad, horrible part. After reading things like this and thinking about them, I just go watch something on Hulu to get my mind off of it and forget about it. How do you remain hopeful?

    1. Hi Amanda, I assume this was in response to my comment? The beauty is in what I have seen behind this veil of pain, poison, despair. The beauty is in knowing what is possible. That this current direction is only one possible future… and it won’t be stopped by doing nothing, which I don’t say to criticise, sometimes distractions are all any of us can do to cope when all we feel is despair. I understand that deeply.

      The other thing that gives me hope is the people I know, have met, and seem to continue meeting…Caity being one of them…people who also know what could be, what we could create instead as more of us wake the fuck up.

      I also count myself incredibly lucky to be a part of a community that is all about creating that alternate future which is so possible – even though at times it does feel hopeless. I guess this is something I’ve been shown time and time again enough that it’s created a deep faith that survives even my darkest moments.

      I hope that helps in some way, provides some comfort or direction. Maybe you’ll never read this reply. Either way, thank you for asking me to think about this and explain it a little deeper. <3

      1. Thank you so much for your reply! I really needed to read this. You’re very lucky to come across those types of like-minded people and have faith and hope in a different future. I work and have two small children at home so my life is consumed with that and it seems like I don’t have time to think about anything else; but when I do, it’s sad and I feel helpless and concerned about my children’s future. What can I do?

  4. Charles Robinson Avatar
    Charles Robinson

    Just conversing here. Nothing more than that.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YFKNZsgPqo

  5. Oh Caitlin, you are just great. I’m your absolute fan!!

  6. Why do we blacken the air and water for money?
    Why do we drop bombs on children for jobs?
    Why do we go to such lengths to cover up the beauty that exists for new, artificial beauty? Why do we replace health with an artificial immune system?
    Why do we not trust ourselves?
    Why do we need a state justice system to tell us what is right and wrong? Why do we need to be advised by “elected” officials?
    Why, and why again, do we never ever look within?
    Why do we keep our gods outside ourselves? Why do we pray out instead of in?
    Why do we never ask why?

  7. Venerating the planet Earth is admirable. Possibly we could also appreciate the fourth planet in some way. Consider that the word “yestersol” was coined by the NASA Mars operations team early during the MER mission to refer to the previous sol (the Mars version of “yesterday”). Maybe the Beatles’ song “Yesterday” has alternative lyrics on number four such as:

    Yestersol
    Lost my girl around the shopping mall
    Never thought I’d miss that ditzy doll
    Oh, I believe in yestersol

    Yestersol, all my troubles seemed so very small
    Now it seems they want my head to fall
    Oh, I believe in yestersol

    Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be,
    There’s a shadow hanging over me.
    Oh, yestersol came suddenly.

    Why she had to go I don’t know she wouldn’t call.
    I said something wrong, now I long for yestersol.

    Yestersol, love was like a simple game of ball
    Now I need a cane for walking tall
    Oh, I believe in yestersol.

  8. I’m thankful for Caitlin! Blessed be, my beauty! Inspire us all to responsible action!

  9. Truth. I feel it in my bones and my blood. The truth of it. The sad, horrible, exquisitely beautiful truth.

    I love getting your newsletter ❤❤❤

  10. Yeah. So what part of the planet is that?

  11. Sign at church saying that they know what life is all about!!! I want to add to this sign that the people who attend such a church (in a suburban part of mid-sized city in Canada) could find out about some truths of life if they lived in the slums of Mexico City; in the rural areas of water starved Yemen (never mind the Excited States bombs dropped by proxy); in the local downtown homeless shelters. “Life” is so damned easy for the minority of this world!

  12. Robert Schick, rogue composer Avatar
    Robert Schick, rogue composer

    from the operarth Sphere (The Most Passionate Love Triangle Never Imagined):

    “Many ask if I’d ever feel lost and distraught if homeless. That’s not possible,” I answer, “for Earth is my home.”

  13. Very true, sad but beautifully expressed. Thanks .

  14. Beautiful sad and true. I also love to see pictures of Earth that are NOT of North America!

    1. Yeah. So what part of the planet is that?

      1. Europe see most of Italy on the right extending down.

          1. Sorry, I have no idea what tx means?

    2. Jack, why? What is wrong with North America?

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