By Zoe Lemos Hi -This is Zoe( I am 12 years old). This is a song I wrote last year. I am in the process of recording it with my band Felixis Jinx and making a music video,

Hey great and many spirits it is I your daughter (son), [insert your name], who comes to you with much gratitude and appreciation for the many gifts and the vital life you have bestowed upon me.

To understand more deeply the intricacies of the human/soil relationships, we can immerse ourselves in the book Dirt, the Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan, and/or watch the magnificent documentary film inspired by this book: Dirt, the Movie. (www.dirtthemovie.org ) And to wholeheartedly enter the elegant and multifaceted realm of Dirt, we can go on to view The Symphony of the Soil (www.symphonyofthesoil.com) a film by Deborah Koons Garcia, which brings science, art and activism to bear on the long, long history of soil.

I meditated on Soil. What does Soil contain, how is Soil made? Who lives in Soil? The more I followed this, the more amazed I was. I began to think of all the Plants, Animals, and Humans who were on this property for centuries and how they contributed to the Soil. I thought of the Rocks and Stones who were ground down over eons by the Waters. I started seeing the miracle of Soil.

Poets and scientists have both developed a refined sense of observation of the physical/natural world.  Scientists can use this sharpened skill of observation to de-mystify and bring understanding to the mechanisms of the physical world. Poets can use their heightened sense of observation to transform the physical and allow us transcend what we might otherwise overlook as mundane.