Monday, 14 March 2016

"...recall carefree days..."

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A woman is helped across a river on the Greek-Macedonian border as refugees try to reach Macedonia on a route that bypasses a border fence: photo by Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press, 14 March 2016

"...recall carefree days..."

recall carefree days in forest enjoying shade and game playing and being loved for music
but now banished because of despair instead of playing enjoyable music now like screech
owl to self days of contentment and delight in music gone destroyed by sorrow
remember back to simpler time wandering forest personifying music of valley now sadness overtaken
whole day so dark absent of light feel all day is evening time perception of world now overwhelming
impossible to conquer mountain crying replaces music filling vale
swan only sang before died only wails greet morning and strong enough to climb
mountain no longer forest once loved now barren desert long time since experienced joy
respected place in society ha
long time since other people in valley who are happy asked stop disrupting lives with music
grown accustomed to hating both evening morning thoughts pursue like wild animals
wonder if might not be better underneath mountain meaning dead and buried
changed perception of world since sorrow overtook now see mountain as valley
nature projecting onto own emotions past and present
what once saw in mountain now see in self and now see mountain flattened dejected
just as see self in forest now hear nightingales owls
but music intermingled where once solace in morning now feel of serene
comes in evening not peacefulness but damp evening air sick
evening air finding filth in sunrise detect foul odor scent flowers but perception world change
instead of finding beauty sight scent find ugliness and offense perception altered
music morning horrific cries men being killed in forest
would like to set fire to forest bid sun farewell every night send curses to find music
envy mountain hate valley
hatred extends to every part of every day night evening morning
curse for self as lower than valley no desire to see evening cover
ears to block sound of music
woman creates music perfect beauty outshines morning grandeur surpasses mountain landscape beauty
when left was cast down into darkness
mountain nothing nothing but valley her music existence action dictate movements of heavens 
nature that surrounds will as witness to sorrow...



A woman is helped across a river on the Greek-Macedonian border as refugees try to reach Macedonia on a route that bypasses a border fence: photo by Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press, 14 March 2016

Khaled Kassmou, 70, sits along a street in the rebel held Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus...Khaled Kassmou, 70, sits along a street in the rebel held Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus, Syria March 13, 2016. Picture taken March 13, 2016. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh

Khaled Kassmou, 70, sits along a street in the rebel held Qaboun neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria: photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters, 14 March 2016

Khaled Kassmou, 70, sits along a street in the rebel held Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus...Khaled Kassmou, 70, sits along a street in the rebel held Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus, Syria March 13, 2016. Picture taken March 13, 2016. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh

Khaled Kassmou, 70, sits along a street in the rebel held Qaboun neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria: photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters, 14 March 2016

Eastview School in Harare, Zimbabwe...epa05211322 Primary students take lessons under a makeshift classroom because of lack of proper classrooms at the Eastview School in Caledonia, Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 March 2016. Students most of whom their parents are low income earners and informal traders, learn under very poor facilities. EPA/AARON UFUMELI  
Primary students take lessons in a makeshift classroom due to a lack of proper classrooms at the Eastview School in Caledonia, Harare, Zimbabwe: photo by Aaron Ufumeli/EPA, 14 March 2016

Eastview School in Harare, Zimbabwe...epa05211322 Primary students take lessons under a makeshift classroom because of lack of proper classrooms at the Eastview School in Caledonia, Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 March 2016. Students most of whom their parents are low income earners and informal traders, learn under very poor facilities. EPA/AARON UFUMELI

Primary students take lessons in a makeshift classroom due to a lack of proper classrooms at the Eastview School in Caledonia, Harare, Zimbabwe: photo by Aaron Ufumeli/EPA, 14 March 2016

Security personnel watch as a man takes a photo of a painting inside the Great Hall of the People before the start of the closing session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, Monday, March 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Security personnel watch as a man takes a photo of a painting inside the Great Hall of the People before the start of the closing session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing: Mark Schiefelbein/AP, 14 March 2016

Security personnel watch as a man takes a photo of a painting inside the Great Hall of the People before the start of the closing session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, Monday, March 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Security personnel watch as a man takes a photo of a painting inside the Great Hall of the People before the start of the closing session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing: Mark Schiefelbein/AP, 14 March 2016

Thailand hit by worst drought in decades...epa05210488 A photo made available on 14 March 2016 shows a Thai Buddhist novice monk walking on drought parched land at a ruined village which has been underwater after the Mae Chang reservoir dried up in Lampang province, northern Thailand, 12 March 2016. The ruined village including ancient temple had been underwater for 34 years since the Mae Chang reservoir was built in 1982, the area has now re-emerged after water in the reservoir dried up caused by the severe drought. Thailand is facing the worst drought in decades hardest hit by El Nino phenomenon combined with seasonal hot weather. EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT

 A Thai Buddhist monk walks on drought parched land at the dried up Mae Chang reservoir in Lampang province, northern Thailand: photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA, 14 March 2016

Thailand hit by worst drought in decades...epa05210488 A photo made available on 14 March 2016 shows a Thai Buddhist novice monk walking on drought parched land at a ruined village which has been underwater after the Mae Chang reservoir dried up in Lampang province, northern Thailand, 12 March 2016. The ruined village including ancient temple had been underwater for 34 years since the Mae Chang reservoir was built in 1982, the area has now re-emerged after water in the reservoir dried up caused by the severe drought. Thailand is facing the worst drought in decades hardest hit by El Nino phenomenon combined with seasonal hot weather. EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT

 A Thai Buddhist monk walks on drought parched land at the dried up Mae Chang reservoir in Lampang province, northern Thailand: photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA, 14 March 2016

The Wider Image: Born in a refugee camp...Moroccan doctors carry a Syrian baby Siwar, who was born by caesarean section in a field hospital in Al Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, March 7, 2016. Siwar is the third child of a Syrian family from Daraa who fled to Jordan two years ago. She is their second child to be born in the camp. Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, 50-80 Syrian children were born in the Zaatari refugee camp each week, according to the official website of UNHCR. REUTERS/ Muhammad Hamed TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY SEARCH "HAMED BORN" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "THE WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES

Moroccan doctors carry a Syrian baby called Siwar, who was born by caesarean section in a field hospital in Al Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria: photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters, 14 March 2016

The Wider Image: Born in a refugee camp...Moroccan doctors carry a Syrian baby Siwar, who was born by caesarean section in a field hospital in Al Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, March 7, 2016. Siwar is the third child of a Syrian family from Daraa who fled to Jordan two years ago. She is their second child to be born in the camp. Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, 50-80 Syrian children were born in the Zaatari refugee camp each week, according to the official website of UNHCR. REUTERS/ Muhammad Hamed TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY SEARCH "HAMED BORN" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "THE WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES

Moroccan doctors carry a Syrian baby called Siwar, who was born by caesarean section in a field hospital in Al Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria: photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters, 14 March 2016

CeBIT 2016 Digital Technology Trade Fair...HANOVER, GERMANY - MARCH 14: Visitors walk past a metallic mannequin at the 2016 CeBIT digital technology trade fair on the fair's opening day on March 14, 2016 in Hanover, Germany. The 2016 CeBIT will run from March 14-18. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Visitors walk past a metallic mannequin at the 2016 CeBIT digital technology trade fair on the fair’s opening day on Monday in Hanover, Germany: photo by Sean Gallup via FT Photo Diary, 14 March 2016

CeBIT 2016 Digital Technology Trade Fair...HANOVER, GERMANY - MARCH 14: Visitors walk past a metallic mannequin at the 2016 CeBIT digital technology trade fair on the fair's opening day on March 14, 2016 in Hanover, Germany. The 2016 CeBIT will run from March 14-18. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Visitors walk past a metallic mannequin at the 2016 CeBIT digital technology trade fair on the fair’s opening day on Monday in Hanover, Germany: photo by Sean Gallup via FT Photo Diary, 14 March 2016


 
A woman is helped across a river on the Greek-Macedonian border as refugees try to reach Macedonia on a route that bypasses a border fence: photo by Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press, 14 March 2016
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5 comments:

  1. Michael Peverett15 March 2016 at 03:32


    Heart-rending, as ever. This world is wonderful and vile.

    Your poem reminds me of Juliana Spahr, in a really good way.

    I'm glad you give the smaller images for those of us with ancient computers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TC16 March 2016 at 01:15

    Thank you very much, Michael.

    ReplyDelete
  3. vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)16 March 2016 at 11:55

    The second photograph (whose composition resembles so much a painting) brings up images of another poem about a painting: "About suffering they were never wrong,
    The old Masters: how well they understood
    Its human position. . ." As does your poem, Tom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. TC16 March 2016 at 19:18

    Thanks very much Vassilis. Yes, I too have been thinking about that fellow taking his rest in the decimated Damascus street, Khaled Kassmou, our fellow human and septuagenarian, and the things he may have seen... possibly one of those sufferers of the war too old and frail or then again too wise to attempt the voyage into that other, different ruin called Europe. An old master at life, might one say? And also, ay caramba! reflecting today on the bitterly ironic news about what happened to those strugglers who made it across that roiling river in the incredibly dramatic and moving top shot: once across, they were "apprehended", as the officialese phrase goes, and made to go back... that is, all the way back, to Syria, whence they'd come.

    ReplyDelete
  5. TC16 March 2016 at 19:23

    No, I think it was not "apprehended", but "detained"... is that kinder?

    One suspects perhaps not, no.

    ReplyDelete