Saturday, August 5, 2017

Burnt

Sun through smoke in Campbell River
photo by Brad Bourget

Wildfires burn;
 haze covers land,
 blanket of gloom.
Eerie sun,
apocalyptic sky,
a portent of doom.

Flames crackle,
wildlife flee,
humans displaced.
Everything burns,
a reckoning come
for the human race.

Mother Earth seeks relief
from unending heat,
but Sky has no tears.
 The land burns on,
the forests gone.
We're left
with our fears.


for  Flash 55 at Real Toads 

source Times Colonist, August 5, 2017:

........as of 9 a.m. today, there were 122 wildfires burning in B.C. As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, there were 25 evacuation orders affecting approximately 7,127 individuals, plus 42 evacuation alerts impacting approximately 24,957 people.

17 comments:

  1. Wildfires terrify me - the damage is almost too much to bear.

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  2. Such powerful imagery in this one, Sherry. May the wildfires cease to exist..

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  3. You've created amazing images, Sherry, of something I have never seen. I can't imagine the heat. I love the lines:
    'Eerie sun,
    apocalyptic sky,
    a portent of doom'.

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  4. The earth is sick with a virus and has a fever. We are that virus. I love the short staccato of the lines. One can almost hear the flames snapping as they mercilessly consume all in their path.

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  5. Oh gods, so many wildfires, and so little people heeding the signs.

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  6. It is said of the Anthropocene that we can no longer hide from the uncanny presence of the world we disordered. It hangs in the air like smoke. Wildfires are too big for the human and their grief is immense. Sing of it, yes.

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  7. You drove this one home. Thank you. We in Calif. made some mistakes and are experiencing wild fires.

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  8. Wildfire is scary. Picture of the 'eerie sun', 'apocalyptic sky', burnt earth really portend doom here. But humans are foolishly fearless. Sigh.

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  9. A dear friend has been sharing images of the sky, the sun on her hometown (in Vancouver)--the sun looks read and eerie though the smoke, as if it just escaped your poem... It's terrifying.

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  10. Signs everywhere that the Earth is in the long process of some deep homeostasis. We....we are in trouble.

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  11. But not enough tears it seems to put out the fire. So sad, and too true, Sherry.

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  12. It is frightening when a big threat can be there all the while to strike at its own 'leisure'

    Hank

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  13. The sun looks like it should be on a tree such a red berry
    these are my favourite lines
    " but Sky has no tears.
    The land burns on,"

    much love...

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  14. Well written and direct, Sherry,

    Elizabeth

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  15. How many thousand years has 'civilised" mankind lived on this earth yet still learns nothing about preserving the planet for the future.

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