Yes – basically that, in terms of the man/woman as presented here. There has always been some kind of Venus/Mars thing (one easy way of putting it) – I think it's impossible to suggest otherwise.
But parallels isn't quite the right word because although the two themes here – a relationship between Men and Women, and a relationship between Mankind and the Earth – are parallel in a multitude of ways- they are far too connected (to me) to be just simply running alongside eachother. They are the same thing in many ways. In this way you could say that this poem is very down on Men, that's what I meant by narrow minded really, but it's just one of the ways that the general relationship between Men and Women can play out – of course it's not an all encompassing picture. Romance can sometimes seem like a holiday away from reality- shame! But then I can be a silly old romantic type so I would say that! Haha. And besides – it's not as if there are no Women who see things like the man in this poem either, and romance is not all that there is ofcourse – but the spirit of it can sometimes die far too prematurely in my opinion.
Equally, the other story here – Mankind's relationship with this planet that he is born of- of course this includes Womankind – it's humanity in general, and in that sense I am referring to many things,(without getting tangled up in patriarchal society and all that). For instance - how we may step out of our industrialised self created worlds – say, go on holiday, take time out to go to the mountains or whatever – and suddenly we feel 'at home' there, we may feel something special stirred within us, some kind of peace, some kind of connection - but instead of treating 'the romance' of that situation as real - we treat is as a holiday, then go back to our daily lives as if that is reality – madness really!
I was trying to bring the two together – and the line that you picked up on about war-torn stomach, is a very feminine one – the Earth, war-torn and damaged by humanity, but also how a Man cannot always seem to naturally find it in himself to really be able to appreciate what it is that Women really go through in our share of things. Stomach is a very vulnerable place to a Woman indeed, and metaphorically – and literally speaking – when a Woman lets a Man kiss her war-torn stomach, she may well be praying against him letting her down in the future, but despite this - she will still let him into her, into everything that she is, because she loves him. Again – I have presented this argument from just one point of view I know.
People go on holiday and mentally kiss the landscape and praise it – but it does not stop them from further hurting and abusing it. It's the nature of being human.
So, also from a Mother-Earth point of view – that is why I split the poem into roles of gender – both stories are the same on different scales - it just worked better that way in terms of structure as well.
Yes! I do fall into that category of people who believes that humanity is damaging the planet to an extent that it shouldn't and can't cope with!
But I don't need to be struck down with science – because a lot of what I think includes that too.
To me - it's fundamentally clear as day – just very very basic common sense, you can't just take take take, and you can't just fill the wounds that you create with rubbish and expect everything to be ok.
Same with people.
Though I do understand that I may utterly wrong about it all - It's just how it feels to me!
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