Sea, Whidbey Island, Washington, June 2005.
O Great Mother,
We have abused you.
Filled your body with toxic trash,
Blasted your delicate membranes with sonar,
Tested nuclear explosions in your womb,
Raped your seabeds drilling for oil.
We have poisoned your children,
Your coral reefs and dolphins and gulls.
We’ve forgotten that you are Source,
And that we are you.
I am ashamed.
Please forgive us.
We love you.
Thank you.
HOLY WATERS by Diana Rico 
Promising. Felt overall a little untidy in the writing (enjoyed the earlier one but the final poem probably would have been best left off entirely as it wasn’t a strong end to the reading experience) but I shall continue to follow, surely these are just teething problems for a new site. Good luck with the project!
Thanks for taking the time to give feedback, Thomas. This is actually intended as a prayer, not a poem (I deliberately tagged it as “prayer” and made a conscious decision not to tag as “poetry”). The ending–indeed, the whole form–is based on the Hawai’ian forgiveness and reconciliation practice of Ho’oponopono. Here’s a little more about that, if you’re interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho'oponopono
But there will be poetry published here, by Guest Artists–including a wonderful piece of waterecstasy coming up this Thursday Jan. 27, so please do check back in!