CATHY ROSS – “SWARM INTELLIGENCE” – A Poem For our Times

A Pacific Northwest native, I have been writing poetry over 40 years.  My poems reflect a woman’s journey through the later years, with recurring themes of loss and renewal.

I have  read at many local poetry venues and am a member of Seattle Poets Table. My first book, If the Moon Came Out Only Once a Month, was published in 2012 and my current book, What the Tulips Said, was published in 2019.   

            SWARM INTELLIGENCE

A friend of mine is studying 

what  she calls “swarm intelligence,”

      the unique ability of birds and bees

           to and act as as one, like geese

                  who suddenly will wheel around

                        as if responding to a silent signal

and fly the other way, and I wonder

how the swarm intelligence compares

with “herd mentality” in which 

       a flock of sheep follows, blindly,

       any leader who happens to be in front,

       even if he (or she)  takes them off a cliff,

and that led me to consider

the concept of the hundredth monkey

where if you have a group of say,

one thousand monkeys,

and you teach them some new skill,

           when monkey number ninety-nine

           has mastered it, the next day all one thousand

           monkeys wake up knowing how to do it,

 and finally I got to thinking  that since we are all

members of the animal kingdom and have

 as much sense as a goose, and can see when

the wool is being pulled over over our eyes and

   how I will not speak for you –

are smarter than the average ape, maybe

 

there will come a time when a swarm

         of humanity rises up as one,

               the world’s survival riding

                      on their wings, pauses

                              for a moment in mid-air,

                      then turns in unison

               to go a new

direction.

To view the previous C Ross poem – click here

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