Sunday, January 5, 2020

A Time of Burning



(Headline from The Globe and Mail)


A Time of Burning

“Some say the world will end in fire,” the poet, Frost has said.
Though he also offered the possibility of ice,
World’s end was nevertheless the given.

Talking about final days has often been a pastime
for those with time on their hands.
They could speak of it and move on in comfort
just as one may exit the theater for ice cream
after a harrowing horror show on the big screen.

“No Exit” was seen by Sartre
and then seen by many on stage.
Even when the prophets speak
we have always managed to find
at least a restroom
and assurance that the world outside still waits.

There comes a time of burning
when the old ways pass.
Instead of quietly fading
like an old cover from
The Saturday Evening Post,
The known world is consumed by fire.

Angry fire,
Cleansing fire,
Raging fire…
It all depends on perspective.
There was a time
when men at war
under enemy fire
Sang longingly
to keep the home fires burning.

Today 
our greatest hope is in catastrophe.
We could not hear the warnings
while living in ease.
World’s end seemed a fantasy,
or a fearful cry of
Fringe environmental zealots.

If we can survive catastrophe,
perhaps a new day will dawn.
If not,
perhaps creation can rest
from her struggles.


~ Charles Kinnaird



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Photo credit: Adam Stevenson / Reuters - A kookaburra perches on a burnt tree in the aftermath of a bushfire in Wallabi Point, Australia, on Nov. 12, 2019.
From The Globe and Mail, "Mourning a disappearing world as Australia burns"



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