April is celebrated as both poetry month and as earth month. This week in honor of the

earth and the language we use to describe and understand it, the slowdown is collaborating

with wonder media networks as she rises. It brings together poems from artists throughout

the US and territories that depict the effect of climate change on their home and their

people, centering native voices and women of color as she rises, personalizes the elusive

magnitude of climate change. Today's poem is by one of the poets featured on Ashi

rises. I'm Italy Mone and this is the slowdown. When my little brother was 4 or 5, I'd come

home from college to visit and we'd go explore the backyard. He loved being outside, still

does. In fact, he was a park ranger after he graduated from college. But when he was little,

our favorite thing to do was look for rocks. Anything that was interesting, we'd pick up

and share with each other. And once we found a rock that seemed to have these small engravings

on it. Of course, they weren't engravings just markings from erosion. But if you held

it one way, you could see a face. And if you held it another way, you could see another

face. And in another way, another face. And then a small turtle on one side. I remember

being truly in awe of what we saw in the rock we found in the garden in Stanwood, Washington.

We named it because, of course, we did. We called it the rock of 10,000 faces. I have it

with me now on my small altar at home. I love it because it reminds me of what the earth

holds, all the secrets in stone, all the layers of the earth, what is below the basalt

and granite. The rock of 10,000 faces felt like a gift. It also still connects me to my

little brother who was now 32 and not so little. Even though I was taught that we should

leave stones where they are, I pocketed that stone. And every once in a while, I go to

my altar and I look at the rock from each direction so that all the faces come alive.

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