As if Climate Change was not enough
Aleksey Semenenko, a famous young Ukrainian violinist, is locked in Kyiv. He went back to give a concert just before the Russian attack on that country. Now he is in hiding somewhere with his precious Stradivarius instrument. Mr Volodymr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine needs men between the ages of 18 and 60 to defend their territory.
I was born on Armistice Day in 1945, in the year World War 2 ended, and on a day which celebrates the end of World War 1. It was expected that there would never be a war like it again. But since 1945, according to my very inexpert research, there have been over 400 serious conflicts across the world. So, are we on the brink again? It looks like we are the most dangerous species on the planet.
My fright and despair is palpable and my paralysis about what I can do shameful. I found something in my writing about my own dangerous cancer years ago, which I have adapted to try and put words on my feelings. Read, pass on, comment, and give feedback.
Mar. 12, 2022
a bug
without noticing
a bug leaped into my life
it caught me off guard
my panicked body
paralyses resistance
now i lie and hope
i was so looking
forward to so much
disaster dictates otherwise
now I cling to the wire
on the spine of my notebook
as my survival raft
Comments
Triona Mc Morrow
16.03.2022 15:59
A powerful poem, Peter. The unease and uncertainty of our world is awful.
I hope you are well.
Tony Campion
16.03.2022 12:16
Peter, as always your writings are timely and thought provoking, the lunacy Putin has unleashed has to stop, but you wonder who or what will stop it.
Debra Davies
13.03.2022 11:30
Troubled times indeed, and reading your poem also brings me back to your illness which you recovered so well from. May we all recover well from this dreadful situation. Well written, Peter
Margaret Dromey
12.03.2022 23:56
Peter, A dreadful situation and I feel so powerless. I also well remember the sadness at your diagnosis years ago - look how well you have done! Let’s hope Putin will see seance.
Tom Dredge
12.03.2022 22:53
Very good poem Peter. Uncanny how apt it is to Aleksey's situation.
Kitty
12.03.2022 22:02
So glad you're writing Peter. I love reading your poems & blog. I can write nothing right now. Remember our MA classes pre-Covid, pre (this) war? I'm still grateful for them.
Clíodhna
12.03.2022 20:53
All our survival rafts have different shapes and sizes.
Dereck Sergison
12.03.2022 20:16
Hi Peter,
I envy your writing & share your despair! While I am only a “young fella”(born in 1955) I must admit to feeling lost! How could we arrive at a point similar to the 1962 Cuban crisis!
Latest comments
25.11 | 22:15
Grief is experience through the mundane. Simple but powerful. The accompanying image really compliments the poem.
07.11 | 11:14
Hi Peter,
A great observation! Social media can be a scary place... I also need to reduce my time there
Hugs,
John.x
06.11 | 16:24
A great one, Peter, in the context you describe. I don't read social media myself, I doubt my equilibrium could stand it. 'The balance of his mind disturbed' yes, I think it would be.
06.11 | 15:59
Yes, gossip is a weapon of mass destruction.
In my business as well as personal life I have zero tolerance.
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And What About . . .
I have neglected this for far too long, and now it is time again. But what to write about, what poem to share? The world is packed with catastrophic possibilities. Such choices: dementia/genocide colluder or extreme narcissism in the White House; a hung parliament in the UK; the reunification of the USSR with a tyrannical megalomaniac at its head; the eradication of a race by a genocidal government in Gaza; the African continent reduced to bankruptcy and regression to male tribalism; in Ireland, even with an appalling electoral turnout the routing of the far right and Sinn Féin may offer some comfort except we face another FF/FG fiasco. Mother Nature rumbles on its rampage, raging against the human species’ abject destruction of the planet’s habitat. What the . . .
Being facetious right now is my only defence against absolute despair. So read, comment, pass it on, and send feedback.
City Walking and Cycling take 680,000
cars per day off the road
Irish Time Heading
More and more folk, cycling and walking, may
keep gases from greenhouses further at bay
This newspaper heading illustrates vividly
thousands of cyclists and walkers assiduously
stopping some cars on their journey
pushing them aside - making drivers quite surly
Mountains of metal - like scrapyards of sculpture
keep bicycle lanes quite safe - at this juncture
The new revolution is well underway
don’t get behind wheels - hear what they say:
Cars and their fumes play a very big part
the smell is quite phew don’t mention cow farts
Wear out your shoe leather walking
greet travellers with smiles while you’re talking
Force councils to make better spaces
to go out and about roaming those places
where vitamin D, and oxygen from trees
fill our lungs and our brains so we see
how to save us and this magical planet
except for some vicious old tyrants goddammit
Peter Clarke, 18th March 2024
