I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

24 April 2017

Planet Icarus

(in climate change future)

All day all the glass 
in all the buildings 
cracked then shattered.

That night many
no longer breathed –
not enough air.

The dirt turned red,
hard as stone. Only the ants 
marched across dry landscapes.

Even eagles faltered 
in the hot sun, and fell 
dead out of the sky.


Written for Magaly Guerrero's Protest and Outrage: Dark Poetry for the Cruellest Month.

This began as the following erasure poem from Michael Dransfield's 'Icarus', then I expanded it into something else (which nevertheless can't quite escape its origins).

All day
glass shattered
night breathed not
red stone marched 
eagles faltered 
in hot sun.

31 comments:

  1. The image of eagles falling out of the sky is now imprinted inside my eyelids. Some things are just so terrible--children not breathing, bees dying, people filling the world with poison and not caring... just so terrible.

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  2. Awe inspiring, original and expanded verses. So clear the images of destruction painted in my mind XXX

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  3. Such powerful and redolent images here, Rosemary!

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  4. This must have been a difficult challenge for one as positive as you.

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    1. I am in fact often despairing about the state of the planet, both environmentally and politically. The challenge, sometimes, is to find ways to stay positive.

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  5. This is just tragic, I saw those feathered eagle Icarus drop from the sky as I read,... The last man will leave the earth & all that was once beautiful & good to death & decay, mother nature nurtured, gave gifts to her children & then the most loathsome raped pillaged and made her barren through geed & lust. Fabulous Rosemary x

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  6. Scary picture you paint, Rosemary. Yes climate change is one of the things to be outraged about.

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  7. That imagery is stunning Rosemary.

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  8. That image of shattering glass all night long is even more scary when you think of all the reasons it could happen...frighteningly vivid.

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  9. Climate change can have dire consequences. Frighteningly true in coming!

    Hank

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  10. Sadly, Rosemary, your poem is being read, by the believers, why those, in power, sit on their fat asses, counting the profit that their polluting ways destroy their very manner of higher earnings.

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  11. This may well be happening the way we treat this planet Earth but humans see such signs only as ways to make more money assuming their own survival is somehow guaranteed! Horrific but it seems so real to me.

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  12. I wonder how you would even risk not believing given the consequences... and just imagine how easy a life with a smaller footprint is...

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  13. You offer a chilling Dystopian scene, Rosemary.

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  14. Grave times; hope we see this never.
    Eagles dropping dead sounds sinister.
    Environmental or man-made disaster?

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  15. It's a crime that those who could make more of a difference are slaves to fiscal demands, and not the demands of mother earth. Good read here.

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  16. The smallest tend to survive ;)

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  17. It feels like a glimpse of what the future might hold. It scares me as I often ponder life generations from now.

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  18. The image of the eagles falling out of the sky is so vivid and potent!

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  19. Point made! Very well!
    ZQ

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  20. A difficult read on a rainy Sunday morning. Even Pandora found hope in the bottom of her box of sins.

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  21. This shows how a poem can stir a consciousness. The eagles falling from the sky is so stark and powerful. I wish climate change deniers would read this poem.

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  22. When eagles fall, we know we are in trouble...

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  23. Shattering in its simplicity. Terrifyingly real and honestly true.

    Elizabeth

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  24. The eagles falling from the sky ....so powerful.

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  25. Powerful images rendered with a clarity that stuns ... and gives your reader: pause. Fantastic writing!

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  26. Replies
    1. I fear so too. However, we can't absolutely know that for certain, so as long as possible I think we must keep on doing whatever we can to try and prevent or postpone. (And after all – however else should we spend our time? It's as good a way as any, and better than many.)

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  27. It seems an apt name for man flying spaceship earth . . . Brilliant.

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