Excited to be included in the prestigious online journal Eureka Street with my new poem written last month, in response to the Thai cave rescue of the 12 Thai boys and their football coach. The early onset of the rainy season flooded the exit to the cave trapping the boys. All were brought to safety over three heart rendering days while the whole world looked on. My poem was about grappling with the whole world focused on this scene even as many other tragedies were occurring around the world.
called A Landscape of Humanity
A landscape called humanity
a landscape called humanity
guided by divers and ropes
via a birth canal
from the womb of the cave in a dark mountain
through the tightness of crevasses
hold your breath to clamber the choke point
surrender fear inner light
heave in the labour from death to life
why is it disasters create heroes
under monsoon darkening skies
one cannot rely on the mercy of rain gods
it is tanks of air
and an international team
navy seal divers engineers scientists
technical expertise
medicos and teams of supporters
that garner our attention
surrounded by a world of tragedies and suffering
it is the challenge the pull-together
that we marvel at
holds our focus holds our breath
its peaks and troughs
with all hope mustered
its sheer beauty
this landscape of humanity
— Colleen Keating
EUREKA STREET |
- Home Vol 28 No 15 A landscape called humanity
A landscape called humanity
- Colleen Keating, Joshua Ryujin, Rory Harris 05 August 2018
2 Comments
Selected poems
Topic tags: Poetry, Colleen Keating,
CCOMMENTS
Those opening lines, Colleen, reminded me of the life delivering umbilical cord.
john frawley | 07 August 2018
What a breathtaking poem – a beautiful commentary Colleen on a beautiful disaster where human spirit showed it’s splendid strength.
Elizabeth | 07 August 2018