The Earthworm – Jul 31

Who really respects the earthworm,
the farmworker far under the grass in the soil.
He keeps the earth always changing.
He works entirely full of soil,
speechless with soil, and blind.

He is the underneath farmer, the underground one,
where the fields are getting on their harvest clothes.
Who really respects him,
this deep and calm earth-worker,
this deathless, gray, tiny farmer in the planet’s soil.

-Harry Martinson

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One Response to “The Earthworm – Jul 31”

  1. Keats Festival 2013 opens | Cherry Potts, Writer

    […] Great songs, particularly the song in praise of earthworms with bassoon accompaniment,  from a poem by Harry Martinson.  The only false note (for me) was Keith Waithe a Guyanan flute player, who had […]


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