All Over

On that first afternoon
it was all about noise:
sirens, the continual tuk-tuk-tuk
of helicopters, and the slow drone
of freight planes airlifting in supplies—noise
and the smell of smoke
hanging in a pall
across the inner suburbs
as the CTV building burned.

But in the days following
I recall the silence of a city
where daily business had all but ceased,
cars off the road, people staying home
or fled—over 70,000 now
the pundits claim, since February 22nd—
and at night the profound darkness
of a power blackout. On the evening
when the street lights blinked back on
we were out walking in the blue dusk:
the light overhead flick-flick-flickered –
and then the whole street
was bathed in a saffron haze,
illuminating the other side
of the road and a friend
outside the wreckage
that had once been her business
My friend’s father, helping her,
had just lost his home, and she,
looking dry-eyed at collapsed bricks,
said simply: “It’s over. It’s all over.”
.
© Helen Lowe, 2011

…………~

The Sparrows

I meant it to be a poem about sparrows
and how the silence that followed
the February 22nd earthquake
included their absent voices —
& not just sparrows but the starlings
and blackbirds, the finches and wax-eyes
that normally fill the day with their bustle
about the business of living …
……………………………. all fallen silent,
hidden away, or gone further to find food
since half the city was covered
in a slick of water and mud. I threw
old bread onto the island of grass
in our own grey sea and waited …
…………………………..… and waited.

And then, finally, they came
their wings clouding the sun.
.
© Helen Lowe, 2011

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“I meant it to be a poem about sparrows…”

Yesterday, I posted on Claire Beynon’s painting that responded to my earthquake poem, The Sparrows. What I didn’t say then is that The Sparrows is really part of what in painting terms would be called a diptych–two works that (in some ways, anyway) work as one. The first poem is All Over, the poem that I wrote when I had intended to write about the sparrows. So when I penned “I meant it to be a poem about sparrows”,I was referring to All Over. The chief connection between the poems, I believe, is the reference to silence.

I thought it would be a nice way to end the Tuesday poem year, to give you the opportunity to read the poems together: I hope you agree!

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here.