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The Trouble with Time by Mark Worrell (2008-9)
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I cannot imagine 100
and
95 miles per hour
winds coming through
and oceans following
them.
So I watch disaster videos
on
each hour while
counting out the copper
coins I can and will
send.
Still, when I close
my eyes, it is as if
I am at the opera
and music
starts an endless crescendo.
Around me waves of
sound buffet my thighs
salt water drips
from my lashes and cheeks
while calmly, I
whisper prayers.
Inspired by Super Typhoon Haiyan and Grace's Sunday Challenge: Featuring Mike Worrall at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads. Also posted at Poets United Poetry Pantry #175.
Poetry allows us to empathize with the wide world, reaching all the places we otherwise can't go. You do a fine job of interpolating the picture as a person standing in some local room reaching across the wind-lashed world. - Brendan
ReplyDeleteThank you, Brandon. I enjoyed your poem for similar reasons.
DeleteThe country is very special for me Susan ~ I have witnessed strong winds tearing away houses & flooding up to my knees ~
ReplyDeleteWe sent up our donation as well ~ Thanks for writing about the tragic event ~ Wishing you happy weekend ~
Thank you, Heaven. I haven't put it in the mail yet, but heed Samuel Peraulta's advice to give to a Philippine source. I usually use the AFSC, but it is moving slowly .
DeleteIt's most sad to read of such calamities. One cannot imagine being swept away alone fighting for survival. The aftermath can be so shocking. Pray be the damage and sorrow are minimized. Nicely Susan!
ReplyDeleteHank
Yes, Hank, Thanks. Keep on with the prayers.
Deleteyou brought in a current event... I loved how you did this and used the painting ....
ReplyDeleteThank you, Robert.
DeleteSo incredibly sad, Susan. My first thought (despite my age) was "We could adopt some children!" but of course that's out of the question because we're too old. Dick will send money from both of us to the charity he decides is most likely to use it to help the victims, because he researches everything. So many scandals about the high costs involved in charities.
ReplyDeleteYour response to this prompt is so like you, my friend. You're wonderful.
Luv, K
Ah, Kay, thank you. (Takes one to know one.)
Deleteapropos and touching, Susan ~
ReplyDeleteThank you, Michael.
DeleteOh! That is a powerful write. How helpless we feel, when we read about such disasters and watch such videos. I remember the Japan earthquake of '11 and how it was to look at the destructive waves coursing through ruining everything coming in its path... carrying along with it, the debris of what once was a way of living.
ReplyDelete-HA
Yes, thank you. It isn't mere debris, but a culture and humanity, as you say.
DeleteOh yes.. that's what a combination of a picture, a poetic soul and watching the news brings.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bjorn. Always have to see through the moment.
Deleteit's hard to watch..how strong nature can be..but glad to see, we're all connected.
ReplyDeleteI think I know what you mean. Those surrounded by media have no excuse for not knowing what our human companions are going through.
Deleteit's amazing how you've used Worrall's 'The Trouble with Time' in a contemporary setting......
ReplyDeleteThank you. You see it, though, don't you? Surreal and true--more real.
DeleteSo heartbreaking - the human condition.
ReplyDeleteYes, but if/when we help each other, hearts--the ones remaining--glow.
DeleteWe seem so helpless to do anything.......
ReplyDeleteOnly seems, though: money, prayer, witness, rescue, letters, etc.
Deletei am speaking today on prayer being an act of submission...an actualization that there are things we can not control in this world...and things we can not understand in the grand scheme of things as well...we do what we can to respond...
ReplyDeleteThank you for letting me know. We all do what we can, and--after prayer--do more.
DeleteWhat a tragedy. Your words brought it to the forefront, where it SHOULD be!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary. I was just thinking that this morning and so I posted my poem along with a NYTimes article on Face book.
Deletesuch honest and evocative lines.loved the image of overwhelming waves.
ReplyDeleteit is hard to imagine that kind of reality. evocative words.
ReplyDeletewww.mypoeticpath.wordpress.com
Your surreal approach to the theme does not detract from the sincerity with which you write, Susan. I felt the genuine concern in every line, and the final stanza is a superb summation of the whole.
ReplyDeleteSo visual images here...and 'music
ReplyDeletestarts an endless crescendo.' - very-very loud !!!
There is a certain element of panic to this that read well to the topic. Very cool when combined with the Painting
ReplyDeletewhoosh, Susan.
ReplyDeleteYour last stanza is so strikingly sensory, Susan. I enjoyed this!
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine the horror those precious souls in the Philippines have suffered...Your words and the painting join in the surreal feeling that though we see the devastation we cannot understand what it was to experience it.
ReplyDeleteit would be nice if we could offer more than coins and tears and prayers. Sometimes that must do when no amount would ever be enough...
ReplyDeleteWow Susan! It is so hard to imagine all the suffering!
ReplyDeleteBravo
I love the comparison of sound and water overwhelming and nearly drowning one. Perfect with the painting.
ReplyDelete"and oceans following them"… 24/7 news keeps us informed - perhaps makes us become better people today - Many of us can only offer prayers, but so many others DO help out. Back in the day, they would have been on their own. But devastation and loss are never easy, thats for sure!
ReplyDeleteSuper Typhoon Haiyan and the destruction it caused are beyond comprehension. i can only imagine that the people who lived through it are still in shock!
ReplyDeleteas for your poem, i LOVE ~
"Still, when I close my eyes, it is as if
I am at the opera and music
starts an endless crescendo."
brilliant!
♥