Gaia, Great Mother, has many hidden treasures
To delight us, and nourish us, her human children.
Metals, hidden in the ground.
So far we have found
Copper,
Gold
Tin
____.
We have found coal!
Oil!
Of course, it’s not a “treasure” until it’s recognized as such.
The air!
There are many more, recognized and unrecognized.
Bio-diversity.
And the one I keep talking about,
A huge library of guidance about how to live together in this biosphere.
Like oil seeping out onto the ground and ruining the cropland in the 1700s,
We do not yet recognize this as a treasure.
Like groundwater, producing our wells,
We rely on this dynamic store, not recognizing its vastness,
And its vulnerability.
“Peak oil!?”
“Running out of oil?!!”
Yes, life will change.
It will be a big adjustment.
AND,
Gaia, Great Mother, has many hidden treasures,
“New” to us, because we have not yet noticed them.
Necessity will lead us back to our Mother,
For new treasures.
Currently undreamed of.
Waiting.
Hidden in plain sight.
The average lifespan of a mammalian species
Is a million years.
At under 200,000,
We’re just getting started!
If the human race were a child who could hope to live to 70,
We’d be approaching our 14th birthday.
(Not an “easy” age for humans.)
May we have the humility
The patience,
The courage,
To learn
To see
Our wealth.
Gaia Voices 
I am glad to read this poem, Richard, because I see the hopeful part of the message you are offering to the world. So often, in our conversations and in your writing, a sense of impending doom is the biggest message I get. Here, though, you’re saying where you think we can look if we want to survive — to “the huge library of guidance for how to live together in this biosphere”. Thank you for outlining the hope you find for us in an increasingly-desperate situation!