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)

22.4.24

This Poems is a Conflict of Earth and Water



This poem is a conflict, between two 

 you’d think should be allies –

two who need to live together 

in mutual support, in symbiosis, 

in give and take, ebb and flow, 

in response, adaptation … in balance.

This poem is a conflict between the two.


This poem is earth silting over,

piling up, drying out, earth

being shovelled, rearranged

by hands and machines,

becoming inhospitable to water.

It is earth discharging its garbage –

being made to discharge its garbage –

to crowd water, to infect water. This poem 

is earth in conflict with water.


This poem is water overflowing –

overflowing the sky in enormous rains;

overflowing the seabed which can

no longer contain it, to bash at the shore

and overwhelm the shore; overflowing

the rivers and streams with violent roaring

to crash over fields, against bridges,

through houses, to inundate the earth …

to change the earth, and the lives

of all those who live on the earth.

This poem is water in conflict with earth.


This poems is a conflict of earth and water.

In fact it is many such conflicts. Some

are the vagaries of Nature, or so we’d

like to think. Some of us like to think them

acts of God. But most are caused by the acts 

of the human race, which depends

on the integrity of earth and water, the way

they act with each other, react with each other.

This poem is the conflict of earth and water,

very much brought about by the conflict

of humanity with its surroundings, its basis, 

its vital support, its only home. This poem is 

a conflict, deadly for us who need earth and water.



The NaPoWriMo prompt is to write about two things fighting which seem unlikely to fight. The Poem A Day prompt is to write 'an earth poem' (today being Earth Day). 


This is written in the Boomerang Metaphors form invented by Hannah Gosselin. 





10 comments:

  1. The perfect poem for Earth Day, Rosemary, and I love the Boomerang Metaphors form, the way it overflows in the third stanza, and especially the way it bursts with verbs in the lines:
    ‘…to bash at the shore
    and overwhelm the shore; overflowing
    the rivers and streams with violent roaring
    to crash over fields, against bridges,
    through houses, to inundate the earth’.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Truth! The haunting use of echo works particularly well with the urgent message of your lovely poem.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like it for Earth Day also. I think that given Mom Nature's roughness as of late that she will have Water to be the winner. You worked hard on this, for my nickel it is really good!!
    ..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, dear Jim. I wish poetry could fix things!

      Delete
  4. A conflict neither can win, you make the conflict a reality with your words.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rosemary, this poem is an amazing success! I tried to have carbon & oxygen fighting, but got over my head. You did it with earth and water.
    Jacquelyn (Poet Voice)

    ReplyDelete

DON'T PANIC IF YOUR COMMENTS DON'T POST IMMEDIATELY. They are awaiting moderation. Please allow for possible time difference; I am in Australia. ALSO, IF YOU ARE FORCED TO COMMENT ANONYMOUSLY – do add your name at the end, so I know it's you!