A Season of Upheaval and Hope

 

One of my poems included in North/South Appalachia’s anthology, Poetry and Art, Volume 2 is “Turning Under.” It references the Song of Hannah and the Song of Mary (The Magnificat). During this Advent season when we remember The Magnificat and it’s declaration that “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly,” it seems fitting to present this poem today which recalls a season of upheaval.

Turning Under

 

On the near edge of summer

things are dying.

The plague has been like a

great harvester

mowing and sifting humanity’s

stalks and branches

leaving sorrow, memory, and

accommodation

strewn about

for the combine to gather

as dry statistics.

 

Some deaths come

When people can’t breathe.

There comes a time of burning

to level those suffocating structures.

 

Things die in summer,

even when death goes unnoticed

amid the flourishing of green.

 

An age-old song

rises from the rubble

when there is hope for the lowly

to be lifted up

as the mighty are brought down.

A song sung by the women who

witness the end

and see the beginning.

A song of Hannah,

a song of Mary,

and a song

of Billie Holiday

because all celebration

is born of sorrow.

  

                        - Charles Kinnaird

*   *   *   

North/South Appalachia Poetry & Art Vol 2 is available on Amazon. Proceeds go to the nonprofit organization, Reconnecting McDowell, to improve educational opportunities in West Virginia.

-