Red for Danger
Darkness lit by a red
more sinister than blood.
The sky a shriek of red,
trees and creatures dead.
The pungent smell of red
chokes throat and nostrils hard.
The new death-colour: red.
(Black comes afterward.)
Written for Sanaa's Weekly Scribblings #1 at Poets and Storytellers United
and also linked to Brendan's earthweal Weekly Challenge: Fire.
We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage /
And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, /
We Poets of the proud old lineage /
Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ...
(James Elroy Flecker)
This is so cool. I love it.
ReplyDeleteI have been following the updates and was saddened to learn that almost two thousand homes have been destroyed, camels being slaughtered and thousands having evacuated due to a hundred fires burning 😢 my prayers are with Australia. Thank you for the powerful poem, Rosemary.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have many other topics right now!
DeleteGreat but sad poem Makes me think of the Australian bush fires. Such an unimaginable horrific disaster
ReplyDeleteIt is directly related to the Australian fires, which I have been living near for several months.
DeleteWow oh so sad that Australia is under this kind of siege.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Happy you dropped by my blog
Much❤✏❤love
Oh that last line... ! I just want it to rain - so much - that I never see another picture of a koala rescue or a video of fleeing roos or read about the 10000 camels. It's too hard.. and yes, I know, this is probably the shape of things to come if we as a planet don't get our act together. Loss of lives and homes and forests- a nightmare from this distance, can't begin to imagine how it is for those caught in the middle. Take care, everyone.
ReplyDeleteOh, it has rained. In parts of Melbourne and some other places, briefly. A visitor from Wales said yesterday, 'You must all be so happy now, with the rain.' We just stared at him. Finally someone said, 'No.' And we all thought, 'You just have no idea.' Around my home in far northern NSW (which I am away from at present, visiting family in Melbourne) the huge fires in the National Park have been burning since early October and still are, though labelled 'Under control'. That means human lives and property are so far kept unburnt. There have been several spot fires today very near my home (one was two streets away). And many others on previous days. I have been watching the app on my phone,as everyone in Australia is doing right now. The spot fires have been put out quickly but they keep happening. And one was not yet out last time I looked; it was a bush fire rather than a grass fire, a little inland from Byron Bay. It's going totake a lot of raid. And if that happens, with the ground so hard and dry, it won;t soak in and we'll get floods.
DeleteI do appreciate your concern, and everyone's. But....
I mean of course 'a lot of rain'.
DeleteAnd I meant National Parks, plural.
DeleteYou have captured my feelings about red, Rosemary, which is not a favourite colour of mine, except in nature: flowers, soil, sunsets, etc. I have seen the images of Australia from space and ‘a shriek of red’ describes it perfectly. I still haven’t heard from my friend in Narooma.
ReplyDeleteI hope your friend will be able to contact you soon.
DeleteWhat a powerful poem - the ending is very sobering
ReplyDeleteThe red you write of here harrows the imagery of unspeakable fire in Australia, spectral, dull, ebbing toward black. A new hue (or one moving toward the center) for our changed global condition. Much more to come of this--how it changes a continent, we'll need your report--and will ebb; it will rain, maybe, maybe too little and perhaps worse, too much (mudslides are one of the aftereffects of the California fires). Writing in red must be so difficult.
ReplyDeleteWhen everything seems hopeless, overwhelming ... writing poetry can help. I have been contacted by my friend in Bateman's Bay. He is recovering from colon cancer surgery in addition to dealing with the bushfires. When will it end, I cannot imagine your grief and pain.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your friend is alive.
DeleteThe bushfires. How utterly sad---and terrifying.
ReplyDeleteOh, this breaks my heart. The photos I've seen from the sky and fire devastation in Australia is horrific. I can't imagine what it's like to actually be living it.
ReplyDeleteRed is the new black, until the black replaces it. You've put some powerful images into these relatively few words. I hope you all find some reprieve from this hell you are going through soon.
ReplyDeleteRed is the fresh wound, and maybe before it turns black there is a glimmer of hope... but I fear not.
ReplyDeleteOne rainstorm doesn't end a drought. Red is our new color of danger.
ReplyDeleteRosemary, I would glad ship Australia, the excess water from North America's Great Lake Basin, as 2020 is being predicted as the 3rd in 4 years, for record setting flood levels. Local Ontario communities are begging the Tories, for assistance to fight shoreline erosion. Sadly, whatever money that they do get, won't be enough. I do hope that Australia doesn't trade one natural disaster for another, when the rains do finally come, to your parched country.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind thought! You'll be glad to know a contingent of Canadian and U.S. firefighters arrived to help us yesterday, and were greeted with prolonged cheers by the Aussies at the airport.
DeleteOh my heart cries for all the devastation and loss of life. Praying for an end to it soon.
ReplyDeleteSuch devastation and loss of people, animals, homes. My thoughts are there.
ReplyDeleteI cannot even imagine what it is like to live with day in and day out.
xoxo
ReplyDelete