Sunday Picnic Brings All the Poets To the Yard

[jjhunter]

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Comments

[alee_grrl]

The last month has been crazy, busy and all over the map for me. I am glad to be starting school again and settling back into a routine (I hope). I have not had the energy to write but have many ideas for new poems kicking around in my head. I would like to share a poem I wrote earlier this year though.

This week marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Irene and the devastating floods she caused here in Vermont. Many of our communities were isolated for days, and some for weeks, since so many roads and bridges were destroyed. Many homes were lost. Thankfully only a few lives were lost, so many more were saved by local volunteer firefighters evacuating homes early. The entire state banded together afterwards, and the sheer strength of community still blows me away.

After the Rain

The world as we know it is gone
new life grows through rotten floors.
Our world may end, but life grows on.

Over saturated the lawn
couldn't absorb the rain more.
The world as we know it is gone.

Down the banks the water ran on
until it overwhelmed the shores.
Our world may end, but life grows on.

Up the river rose, danger dawned,
torrents unleashed, destruction roared,
the world as we know it is gone.

Roads, cars, homes, so much lost, withdrawn
downstream, rubble forevermore.
Our world may end, but life grows on.

Water receded, clean-up dawned;
community strengthened through chores.
The world as we know it is gone.
Our world may end, but life grows on.

[untonuggan]

<3 I'm glad you have a way of commemorating that is so beautiful.

[alee_grrl]

Thank you!