Informing The Wind
Show that black face of daggers,
say 'Everything
everything can be taken,'
before we grow too used to kindness
before we think our plastic baskets
were meant to hold the world.
Take the bricks and boards we push up,
our antnest parades, parapets and pillars.
our antnest parades, parapets and pillars.
Shake them like a blanket
into holes, tumbled holes, full of
the nothing that
we really are.
Blow out every tiny act
that marks our place, break it in scarlet,
fly it away with your empyreal breath,
consumed and exhaled in a cloning of dust;
then perhaps the time will come
when we are able to believe
we have no dominion over
we have no dominion over
anything we see.
Image: via flick'r creative commons
Credit: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
Tornado in mature stage of development. Photo #3 of a series of
classic photographs of this tornado. Oklahoma, Enid. June 5, 1966.
Photographer: Leo Ainsworth.Credit: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
we (I) swing between feeling 'god-like' and microscopic speck of poop hanging on to the tip of a hairy assed galactic being that doesn't even understand that I 'exist'.
ReplyDeletethen there's the feeling of being a being 'god-(un)liked' which is some kind of supernatural social media snub dished out by blessed bastards, or dark facebook angels!
Here in northern Europe the weather hates us as a constant but slowly and carefully but very rarely a full scale attack.
But living by the sea, as I do, and being the son of an old retired sea dog, I am fairly familiar with the natural scream.
but you nail it here hedge with a pointed tone.
the pic and title are V. well chosen and show the way into the main body as it shrugs . . . I project my own ^shrug^ onto/into the end line in a machismo/casual attempt to be 'god-like' BUT we both know the sublime is terrifying for a reason.
This is so very true, Hedge. In the face of nature, we are powerless and immaterial. One look at the might of a tornado, or the devastation left behind after a hurricane has passed and your words must ring with the terror of prophecy:
ReplyDeleteeverything can be taken,'
before we grow too used to kindness
before we think our plastic baskets
were meant to hold the world.
Your second stanza spoke to me the most here, Joy Ann. And the final couplet does sum of live, doesn't it? Poignant poem.
ReplyDeletePamela
we really don't. no matter what we think of ourselves.
ReplyDeleteyes, pointed, and poignant, both.
full of
ReplyDeletethe nothing that
we really are....nice....shake the world and all the towers be build that make us feel powerful...show us how powerless we really are in all of this...its a humbling that we oft get, but oft forget as well...
You knocked this one out of the park, kiddo. I especially love your closing couplet. Wowzers!
ReplyDeleteTerrific sad poem - for me the clinching line -- well there are many many - but this idea of the closing of dust is terribly powerful -- dust has so many senses as in dust to dust - and the idea of a cyclone of dust that feeds off and replicates itself to build to its power is all contained in that phrase.
ReplyDeleteShaking them like a blanket - well the whole thing strong - but so vivid. My first image was laundry - we are put out to dry == but also going back to ants - a picnic for the tornado.
Dominion such a strong word and notion here. And what then do we have dominion over - what we don't see? My initial reaction to the line was no dominion over anything, but then there's also this hidden question - what we may, in fact, of some hold over something (the nothing that we are) - that's something, though, right? Hope so. k.
Powerful words, and so true, especially the final two lines.
ReplyDeleteK
very powerful and a great close to the entire process of thoughts here.
ReplyDeletePlastic baskets holding the world. What a perfect image that is! There is nothing like a tornado to deliver a lesson on the definition of "temporary". Those closing lines are chilling and succinct.
ReplyDelete"into holes, tumbled holes, full of"
ReplyDeleteeffective repetition at the heart of the write, hedgewitch.
make stuff, buy stuff, bury stuff, cover it up.
~ M
You got that right Moonbat...Kick Ass!!!!
ReplyDeleteNature doesn't care if you are a king or a beggar. Yes, WHEN will we ever learn we really don't own anything.... A nice strong voice today, Joy!
ReplyDeleteA effing men!!! How small we are in the wrath of everything natural. If ants had to get insurance for their homes, I wonder if they would be rated on how many humans live in the vicinity of their nest. I have thought often about you during these storms and do hope that you and your loved ones made it through ok.
ReplyDeleteDamn, this is good. The "new" god supposedly gave us dominion over everything. The ancients? Um, not so much (that's how I'm reading this; hope I'm not completely off).
ReplyDeleteReally brilliant, compelling work.
The third stanza and the final verse blew me away ~ Powerful voice as is the theme ~
ReplyDeleteTruth, very well said. Whether it's natural "disasters" or human ones, in my opinion wisdom begins with what you're saying here. We must live and work in the knowledge that we will die and our works will fail. That's just the way it is. How people respond to that sets their behavior/character.
ReplyDelete