Oil Slick on Water by Dave Martin
THE CITY
~by Eeva-Liisa Manner*
How the houses have grown in this city,
the chasms deepened, the water become blacker,
soon it will creep on to the streets, the balustrades are fragile,
the water table is rising, the basements are already full,
fear is rising, fear is hidden
in oppressive tact,
in open crimes.
Soon boats will be needed, do you hear the roar,
take the boats, hats are no help any more,
or, if you plunge in bravely,
take word to him, the Mover,
that the distress is very great.
*one of the poems from This Journey (1956)
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8 comments:
'fear is hidden in oppressive tact'
oh lydia, i could send these colors and words to everyone i know. how incredibly powerful.
i find myself in what must be psychic pain from the oil gush (cannot use the tepid word 'spill'--it's a full on faucet)
so sad. i wonder what is wrong with us sometimes.
thank you, dear friend. here's wishing you a good weekend and here's a TSUP! on your cheek.
love
kj
kj~ They were powerful for me too and I hope you do send them on...
Thank you for the word gush, which is the appropriate one. Also for calling attention to the psychic pain...I know we are certainly not alone in that and it's important to acknowledge it.
A TSUP; why thank you and now I must find out what that is! :)
What a powerful poem! And a provacative post (sign of a great post). And such precient lines as the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico oozes onto land and fear rises of what next?
Kittie~ I thought it was powerful too, especially in light of what is and is to come as a result of BPs oil gush. Thanks for being here.
That's the change we face and that's the change we don't expect. Sometimes we fight back... sometimes we avoid and flee... That's life.
Riyadh~ Thank you for your interesting comment. Some of the change we experience is life but I refuse to accept, as a part of life, the spoiling by oil conglomerates of our beaches/fishing grounds and the nesting grounds of birds. :(
Yes, Lydia, the image and the words need to move us--they almost hurt me. The oil moves behind me as my seemingly untouched daily life goes on. But it cannot be ignored and I wonder if our government at some level is too paralyzed to make a stronger response against drilling.
naomi~ You wrote basically a description of my thoughts as my own daily life goes on. Yet changed somehow...
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