Poem-reprinted in 1919 during the Spanish Flu pandemic

And people stayed at home
and read books
and listened
and they rested
and did exercises
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and stopped and listened
more deeply.
Someone meditated, someone prayed,
someone met their shadow
and people began to think differently
and people healed
and in the absence of people who
lived in ignorant ways
dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
the earth also began to heal
and when the danger ended and
people found themselves,
they grieved for the dead
and  made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways of living
and completely healed the earth,
just as they were healed.