--- description: Read Barbara Kingsolver's poem "Great Barrier." title: Read the Poem 'Great Barrier' by Barbara Kingsolver image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [climate change](/tag/climate-change/) ## climate change Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read ‘Great Barrier,’ Barbara Kingsolver’s Wrenching Ode to Our Planet by [Barbara Kingsolver](/author/barbara-kingsolver/) ## Barbara Kingsolver Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 12, 2019 11:12 AM CUT by [Barbara Kingsolver](/author/barbara-kingsolver/) ## Barbara Kingsolver Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 12, 2019 11:12 AM CUT The cathedral is burning. Absent flame or smoke, stained glass explodes in silence, fractal scales of angel damsel rainbow parrot. Charred beams of blackened coral lie in heaps on the sacred floor, white stones fallen from high places, spires collapsed crushing sainted turtle and gargoyle octopus. Something there is in my kind that cannot love a reef, a tundra, a plain stone breast of desert, ever quite enough. A tree perhaps, once recomposed as splendid furniture. A forest after the whole of it is planed to posts and beams and raised to a heaven of earnest construction in the name of Our Lady. All Paris stood on the bridges to watch her burning, believing a thing this old, this large and beautiful must be holy and cannot be lost. And coral temples older than Charlemagne suffocate unattended, bleach and bleed from the eye, the centered heart. Lord of leaves and fishes, lead me across this great divide. Teach me how to love the sacred places, not as one devotes to One who made me in his image and is bound to love me back. I mean as a body loves its microbial skin, the worm its nape of loam, all secret otherness forgiven. Love beyond anything I will ever make of it.  Harry Campbell for TIME --- This is one article in a series on the state of the planet’s response to climate change. [Read the rest of the stories](https://time.com/climate-change-solutions "undefined") and sign up for [One.Five, TIME’s climate change newsletter.](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletters/?newsletter%5Fname=climate&source=article-climate-footer "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5669066/barbara-kingsolver-great-barrier-poem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5669066/barbara-kingsolver-great-barrier-poem/"},"headline":"Read ‘Great Barrier,’ Barbara Kingsolver’s Wrenching Ode to Our Planet","datePublished":"2019-09-12T11:12:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:56:41.117Z","description":"Read Barbara Kingsolver's poem \"Great Barrier.\"","url":"https://time.com/5669066/barbara-kingsolver-great-barrier-poem/","keywords":["climate change","Climate 2019"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Barbara Kingsolver","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/barbara-kingsolver/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5669066/barbara-kingsolver-great-barrier-poem/","name":"Read ‘Great Barrier,’ Barbara Kingsolver’s Wrenching Ode to Our Planet"}}]}] ```