,saturday morning, ashen, as if this monsoon has stapled itself
to the sky and will never leave, the deluge will wash away
everything, even sins, even sinners, the levitating fear that
woke me up before dawn is still rising, though I’m afraid the moon
will be much too cold to touch, the numbness with which I greet
the news is surrounded by a hollow moat that aches as a flaccid
sun wakes, how much more, a woman is killed, a child is raped,
hurricanes line up in the ocean like planes waiting to land, maybe
if the earth opens up like an orange, so we can fix it wedge by
wedge, stripping fibre, spitting out bitter seeds, biting into
summer, remember the juice running down our chins, we were
laughing, not a cloud in the blue, the sky schooling us to cover
our blemishes, it is raining again, someone is gathering clothes
hung out on the line, blue jeans, wet as fear, the saturated ground
is refusing rain that pours and pours, the sea, filled with storms,
is refusing water, so it waits, turning the colour of absent light,
a bleeding orange, unwedged, how much more, the hollows ache as
they drown the dead, but we are laughing, wiping juice on our collars,
pointing at the untainted sky, the moon, wrapped in cloud, is cold
as ice, summer burning my throat, saturday morning, half past dawn,
Ah, Rajani. I love your imaging, esp. words about the earth as orange… The style is amazing, I like these long meaningful lines with details. It’s like watching flash screen news, but with your emotions added. Call to save our earth. Very impressive!
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Thanks so much… flash news with emotions…love that 🙂
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Astounding images, Rajani — the stapled monsoon, the wish for bits of life like wedges of orange, the hurricanes like planes landing, and especially the transition from the every day of blue jeans, to the link wet as fear, to the global — earth that can hold no more rain. Another dazzling poem that brings me in and won’t let me go. Thank you.
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Thank you Sarah… so glad you liked it.
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Powerful….wonderfully written…
a bleeding orange, unwedged, how much more, the hollows ache as
they drown the dead, but we are laughing, wiping juice on our collars,………………aah!
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Thanks so much Sreeja… 🙂
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Timely and terrifying poetic truth. The world is a mess and things just keep on getting wilder. The latter was brilliantly expressed through your poem, and shown visually through the line breaks.
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Thanks so much Magaly.
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Once again: words fail me. Brilliant, beautiful writing. I could get lost in each and every stanza.
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Thanks so much Wendy…appreciate your support.
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Very vivid draw on our imagination. Were have we ( nature and man) come to?
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Where indeed… thanks so much.
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Now this is my favourite image
“hurricanes line up in the ocean like planes waiting to land, maybe”
Much love…
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Thanks Gillena.
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Brilliantly evoked – in all its reality. The poem kept me reading, even as it detailed things I would rather not face.
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Thanks so much Rosemary.
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but we are laughing, wiping juice on our collars,
pointing at the untainted sky, the moon, wrapped in cloud, is cold
as ice, summer burning my throat, saturday morning, half past dawn,…This is truly a fitting end to a beautiful rainy poem.
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Thanks so much Toni.
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Deep feelings elicited by your imagery…..’the numbness with which I greet
the news is surrounded by a hollow moat that aches’….this sums it up for me as I try to greet the day without news as it is too much, but we can’t escape it.
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No we can’t escape it, only hope it will get better at some point. Thanks Donna.
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“Hurricanes lined up like planes waiting to land” …. only one of the wonderful descriptive phrases in this evocative poem!
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I do love the imagery of rain, and I feel that when bombarded with the news we feel the rain much more. The world is heavy on our shoulders.
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That’s so true… especially at the end of a long monsoon season..
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I like the weaving of ongoing life in the midst of the climate events. Love the juice on the chin….and i wish we could fix the earth, wedge by wedge.
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Thanks Sherry.
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I like the rolling couplets too – conjures clouds and waves and storm surges
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Thank you Laura.
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sun wakes, how much more, a woman is killed, a child is raped,
hurricanes line up in the ocean like planes waiting to land,
One feels angry but helpless at the all the bother and disasters plaguing the world.
Hank
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Helpless is absolutely right! Thanks Hank.
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‘if the earth opens up like an orange, so we can fix it wedge by wedge, stripping fibre, spitting out bitter seeds, biting into summer, remember the juice running down our chins, we were laughing, not a cloud in the blue’ .. Beautifully evocative!
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Thanks Sanaa…
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Really evocative. I like how rain (or some imagery related to water) is worked into every stanza!
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Thanks so much Mary…
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The hurricanes lining up like planes waiting to land—this image takes my breath away, particularly as Hurricane Irma now batters Florida, where I have a number of friends. Will they survive the battering? All I can do is wait and see…
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Hope everyone is safe. From what I see on the news a lot of resources have been deployed. and preventive action taken. Flooding has cost a lot of lives in this part of the world this year.
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It sounds as though both nature and civilisation is falling apart as the weather and civil order breaks down. We are in fact witnessing this throughout the world and perhaps we should all be worried.
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We should indeed, I agree. And humans are responsible for both!
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I love when nature is entwined with hues of life and this is amazing!!
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Thanks Vandana.
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I love the idea of the monsoon stapling itself to the sky, another great poem, thanks.
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Thanks John.
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A lament almost…or the pre lament call…we have, I believe, long since missed the wake up call…the dance will become more and more chaotic and by the time the Western world realises it’s folly all it will be able to do is panic.
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Sometimes it feels society, weather… almost everything is getting extreme… wish the world would sober down and let us take a breath.
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Powerful images, and I especially loved the notion of fixing the earth wedge by wedge, like an orange. Well done.
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Thanks so much Sue.
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This is a fantastic piece of writing that encapsulates what natures is heaving at the world at the moment; great title too.
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Thanks so much Julian…
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“monsoon has stapled itself to the sky” love the image and “hurricanes line up in the ocean like planes waiting to land” A worry though as hurricane after hurricane destroys everything in their path at the moment. Will this be the future
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That’s what they say will happen with climate change, more extreme weather. Even worse in countries that don’t have resources or infrastructure to counter it.
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Stunning imagery thotpurge
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Thanks Jae…
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“how much more, a woman is killed,….”…Can’t get over the thought. Ugh.
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And everything sounds more bleak in the incessant rain… crazy.
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