Poetry Log
Autumn
Lost in the Forest By Pablo Neruda Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips: maybe it was the voice of the rain crying, a cracked bell, or a torn heart. Something from far off it seemed deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth, a shout muffled by huge autumns, by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves. Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance climbed up through my conscious mind as if suddenly the roots I had left behind cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood—- and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent. |
July
Week Six By Hannah Connolly I suppose it took a global pandemic for me to realise just how much I have always loved the smell of wisteria. Watching clouds drift from windows, rooftop bus rides to nowhere and sipping rosé in beer gardens, playing at sophistication and world-weariness. I suppose it took a global pandemic for me to notice just how much I have always hated the sound of early morning alarms. Chaotic nights out with people I hardly know, fuelled by fomo and fear. Sitting frustrated in smoky traffic jams, long train rides home without a buffet cart. It seems it only took the whole world to stop whirring for me to feel the wild warmth of wasting time with people who make you feel safe. Even if it is on Zoom. |
May/June
FEAR By Khalil Gibran It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled, from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and villages. And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast, that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever. But there is no other way. The river can not go back. Nobody can go back. To go back is impossible in existence. The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear, because that’s where the river will know it’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean. |
April
Kinder World By Donna Ashworth History will remember when the world stopped And the flights stayed on the ground. And the cars parked in the street. And the trains didn't run. History will remember when the schools closed And the children stayed indoors And the medical staff walked towards the fire And they didn't run. History will remember when the people sang On their balconies, in isolation But so very much together In courage and song. History will remember when the people fought For their old and their weak Protected the vulnerable By doing nothing at all. History will remember when the virus left And the houses opened And the people came out And hugged and kissed And started again Kinder than before. |