{"id":27585,"date":"2014-12-23T06:30:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T17:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=27585"},"modified":"2014-12-22T22:05:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T09:05:21","slug":"the-tuesday-poem-an-earthquake-poem-diptych-all-over-and-the-sparrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/12\/23\/the-tuesday-poem-an-earthquake-poem-diptych-all-over-and-the-sparrows\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuesday Poem: An Earthquake Poem Diptych—“All Over” and “The Sparrows”"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Over<\/h3>\n

On that first afternoon
\nit was all about noise:
\nsirens, the continual tuk-tuk-tuk
\nof helicopters, and the slow drone
\nof freight planes airlifting in supplies\u2014noise
\nand the smell of smoke
\nhanging in a pall
\nacross the inner suburbs
\nas the CTV building burned.<\/p>\n

But in the days following
\nI recall the silence of a city
\nwhere daily business had all but ceased,
\ncars off the road, people staying home
\nor fled\u2014over 70,000 now
\nthe pundits claim, since February 22nd\u2014
\nand at night the profound darkness
\nof a power blackout. On the evening
\nwhen the street lights blinked back on
\nwe were out walking in the blue dusk:
\nthe light overhead flick-flick-flickered \u2013
\nand then the whole street
\nwas bathed in a saffron haze,
\nilluminating the other side
\nof the road and a friend
\noutside the wreckage
\nthat had once been her business
\nMy friend\u2019s father, helping her,
\nhad just lost his home, and she,
\nlooking dry-eyed at collapsed bricks,
\nsaid simply: \u201cIt\u2019s over. It\u2019s all over.\u201d<\/em>
\n.<\/span>
\n\u00a9 Helen Lowe, 2011<\/p>\n

…………<\/span>~<\/p>\n

The Sparrows<\/h3>\n

I meant it to be a poem about sparrows
\nand how the silence that followed
\nthe February 22nd earthquake
\nincluded their absent voices \u2014
\n& not just sparrows but the starlings
\nand blackbirds, the finches and wax-eyes
\nthat normally fill the day with their bustle
\nabout the business of living \u2026
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/span> all fallen silent,
\nhidden away, or gone further to find food
\nsince half the city was covered
\nin a slick of water and mud. I threw
\nold bread onto the island of grass
\nin our own grey sea and waited \u2026
\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..\u2026<\/span> and waited.<\/p>\n

And then, finally, they came
\ntheir wings clouding the sun.
\n.<\/span>
\n\u00a9 Helen Lowe, 2011<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

“I meant it to be a poem about sparrows…”<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday, I posted on Claire Beynon’s painting that responded to my earthquake poem,<\/a> The Sparrows<\/em>. What I didn’t say then is that The Sparrows<\/em> 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, <\/em>the poem that I wrote when I had<\/em> intended to write about the sparrows. So when I penned “<\/em>I meant it to be a poem about sparrows”,I was referring to All Over<\/em>. The chief connection between the poems, I believe, is the reference to silence.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"TuesPoem\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2014noise 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earthquakepoems","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27585"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27590,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27585\/revisions\/27590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}