geology is poetry

Earth, sea, air: one element, interdependent,
      an ecological unit, to preserve
Or to pollute, make up your mind
      while you've still got a mind.
A cycle so intricate that to quote a geologist, not a poet:
      'the next breath you breathe will contain
Atoms exhaled by Jesus at Gethsemane
      and Hitler at Munich'. Not may,
But will. A metaphor I knew
      but did not dare. Geology is poetry
Where poetry is true.

-Ronald Duncan, 1971, from Man Part II, Canto Fifteen-