Thursday, March 26, 2009

the floods

















The Floods


THE RAIN it rains without a stay

In the hills above us, in the hills;
And presently the floods break way

Whose strength is in the hills.
The trees they suck from every cloud,
The valley brooks they roar aloud—
Bank-high for the lowlands, lowlands.

Lowlands under the hills!

The first wood down is sere and small,

From the hills—the brishings off the hills’
And then come by the bats and all

We cut last year in the hills;
And then the roots we tried to cleave
But found too tough and had to leave—
Polting through the lowlands, lowlands,

Lowlands under the hills!

The eye shall look, the ear shall hark

To the hills, the doings in the hills,
And rivers mating in the dark

With tokens from the hills.
Now what is weak will surely go,
And what is strong must prove it so—
Stand fast in the lowlands, lowlands,

Lowlands under the hills!

The floods they shall not be afraid—

Nor the hills above ‘em, nor the hills—
Of any fence which man has made

Betwixt him and the hills.
The waters shall not reckon twice
For any work of man’s device,
But bid it down to the lowlands, lowlands,

Lowlands under the hills!

The floods shall sweep corruption clean—

By the hills, the blessing of the hills—
That more the meadows may be green

New-mended from the hills.
The crops and cattle shall increase,
Nor little children shall not cease.
Go—plough the lowlands, lowlands,

Lowlands under the hills!


-Rudyard Kipling




photo: Peter Newcomb, New York Times 2007


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12 comments:

Roxanne said...

Is it flooding where you are, dear Lydia? I know it's flooding quite badly in the States in some places, but I don't know if this is where you are.

I loved your random facts about you. Amazing what you learn about a person through random facts. The Tahoe story is beautiful - you should turn that into a short story. And, by the way #20, I love God too :) I love that you declared it like that.

Good wishes to you!

raccoonlover1963/Lisa Myers said...

Hi Lydia
It almost looks like somebody just took the statue and dropped it in the middle of the river! YIKES!!! I'm glad we don't have any significantly large rivers around here.
Take care
Lisa

Lydia said...

@Honour- I'm answering quickly to let you know that I'm nowhere near the floods. I'm in Oregon, while the floods are expected to worsen to a possible disaster in North Dakota.
Those people need our prayers, most definitely.
My area had a bad flood in the mid-90's and it wiped out the basement and main floor of a friend's home. They lost their entire library and her husband was never the same afterward.
Thanks for your comments about my 25 things. :)

@Lisa- It looks like a Hollywood production and hard to believe it was real life. The caption said it was St. Louis, I believe. I'm glad you feel safe where you live. :)

Looking to the Stars said...

Outstanding picture :) Glad you are not in the flooding. We are having a snow blizzard today, typical Colorado weather. What i found strange about the flooding, was they are also having snow. Cold enough to snow but not cold enough to freeze the flood waters. Strange weather and you are right, we need to keep these people in our thoughts and send them postive energy

Lydia said...

@Looking to the Stars- The snow/flood combination was confusing to me, but tonight I saw a solid explanation on The Weather Channel that helped me a bit.
Now a Colorado snow blizzard, that I could enjoy if I was inside cozy. :)

Tikno said...

This reminds me with the flood disaster in Samarinda city (Indonesia) where I live now. I have post about it, just for memorabilia.

Lydia said...

@tikno- Natural disasters illustrate how much we all have in common, and how we can help one another....even if it is only sending out hopeful wishes of understanding, as you have. I will come read your post and I thank you for being here!

Lily said...

Intestesting poem! And the pictyure is also really good, makes you both interested and is in a way also provoking...

re your comment below:
What do you mean by "believer in population control?"
And you know, that the spirit lives on, doesn't mean, that there are gonna be more bodies on the planet, there are other reasons for that...

here's a link to one of my posts which I would like everybody to read, simply to warn them:
http://ahealthierwayofliving.blogspot.com/2009/03/chiropractic-as-questionable-method.html
hopefully they will then not have to experience the same that I did!

love, Sarah sofia

Anonymous said...

That is a very sombre picture. For some reason, in the poem, I pictured the flood from the hills as a magnetizing force. The trees being pulled from the murky clouds and "lowlands, lowlands!".

Wayfaring Wanderer said...

I just watched this. I think it goes with this post and I know you will enjoy it.
Stand by Me

Unknown said...

What got me was "the floods shall sweep corruption clean"
So he did not see the floods as bad after all, did he?

Lydia said...

@WW- That is such a phenomenal video. I had seen it before but was more than happy to see it again, especially because it really does relate to this post.

@Buddha- You extracted the one line that made me kinda squirmy. I'm no specialist in land reclamation so I'm not sure if there are some pluses regarding floods, e.g. for farming. It seems to me that flooding would wash away precious top soil.......

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