Poetry By John CannonDeclaration of Interdependence
Poetry By John Cannon From All-Creatures Animal Rights and Inspirational Poetry Archive

Animal Rights, Spiritual and Inspirational poetry that touch the heart and soul, and provoke the mind.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears the beat of a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
— Henry David Thoreau

Declaration of Interdependence
By John Cannon

We the people
of the United States,

so accustomed
to freedom
and independence,

so accustomed
to marching to our own
individual drummers,

are very slowly
awakening
to a reality

where
health and sickness,
life and death,

depend on
our thinking
and acting

interdependently —

where everything
we do or don’t do

has ripple effects
that touch many others.

Not since
World War II

has our survival
as individuals and
as a nation

depended so much
on working together
for a common cause.

Can we restrain
our impulses
to “do our own thing?”

Can we think of others
as much as
we think of ourselves?

I hope and pray

that we can.


Go on to: Deep-Winter Dusk
Return to: Poetry by John Cannon
Return to: Animal Rights Poetry
Return to Spiritual and Inspirational Poetry