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Poets and artists

The Rock Cycle

In my hand I hold a rock
In the rock I see a form
& the form is of a shell
& the shell was once a house
In that house a creature lived
Lived and left life in the sea
& that warm sea had a bed
But the bed was iron-hard
& the iron pressed the shell
& the shell turned into stone
& the stone dropped through the earth
& the Earth smashed into plates
& the plates began to drift
& they drifted round the world
& the world was scorching hot
& the heat began to rise
& it rose up through the crust
& the crust began to split
& through the split red lava streamed
& the streams were full of stones
& the stones clumped into rocks
& the rocks grew into hills
On the hills the air blew cold
& the cold turned into ice
& the ice was four miles thick
Then the thick ice turned to snow
& the snow turned into rain
& the rain washed out the rocks
In the rock I see a form
& the form is of a shell
& that shell is in my hand.