COVID Moments

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

 

COVID Moments

by Charles Kinnaird

 

We kept death so distant

we could eat steak

without thinking of the slaughterhouse.

We could fry chicken every Wednesday

and never have to wring a neck.

And now the hangman

waits for us.

 

We treated death

like flotsam that washes up

with the tide,

Not realizing

that death is the tide itself.

 

The cedar waxwing –

lovely elegant form –

lay lifeless on the sidewalk,

a victim of plate glass windows.

She had flown freely,

oblivious of

civilization’s snare.

 

Death waited

expectantly,

perhaps over the next hill

or down the block

or just around the corner.

We moved within it

as it moved among us.

Careful steps.

An ominous dance.

 

Some things die slowly.

Police Send Two Black Men Away from

Walmart Store for Wearing Protective Masks

Though death is the

ultimate leveler,

it is still more difficult

to be safe

while being black.

  

Burial trenches

are dug in The Bronx

for mass graves

as were once seen in wartime,

or in despotic regimes.

COVID-19 claims more victims

and while we dig

we dare not doubt

that a vaccine

will soon combat this death.

 

Reluctantly

we closed down

and donned our masks.

Streets and courtyards

Restaurants and banks

Schools and churches

Now empty.

None can say when

or how

we will open back up.

 

Social distancing

Is the directive.

 

Hospitals retool.

Nurses retrain.

Doctors reframe

medical necessity.

Chaplains remind

that caring

spans distance.

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Just when we thought we were seeing an end to the pandemic, the Delta variant has brought about an increase in COVID cases with more hospitalizations.  The poem above is one of many others that some friends and I have compiled in a poetry anthology, The Social Distance: Poetry in Response to COVID-19. The book has received many compliments from readers and is available on Amazon.  The poets featured are from different walks of life and their words offer a meaningful examination of how we make our way through these unusual times.

I was pleased that Alabama's poet laureate, Jennifer Horne, read one of my poems from the book for her Midweek Poetry Break. You can enjoy that reading here. 

*     *     *

The Social Distance: Poetry in Response to COVID-19

An Anthology by the Highland Avenue Eaters of Words

Poetry and photographs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, sheltering in place and related trials. The poets, who include doctors, lawyers, journalists, and other professionals open themselves up in non-sentimental, beautiful, and often painful verse that seeks to capture these odd and often difficult times. This book is for those who want to keep a reminder of what "social distancing" was like and to experience how others dealt with isolation and fear. Although engaged in other vocations, the contributing poets include experienced writers who are the winners of local and national contests. Several of the poets have written other books of poetry, essays, and fiction as well as numerous articles and contributions to professional publications.

Available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Social-Distance-Poetry-Response-COVID-19/dp/1098317092

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Friday Funnies: Back in the Game

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Cartoon by Matt Prichett, The Telegraph

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Monday Music: See Me: A Global Concert

This week's Monday Music feature is 23 good minutes of music from the midst of our COVID shutdown. From the World Economic Forum YouTube site:

"See Me: A Global Concert” is the remarkable result of an international collaboration between hundreds of musicians, artists and film teams who took a leap of faith, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, to create together, across the world, a beautiful 23-minute musical production in the spirit of trust, connection and hope. 

With the participation of Yo-Yo Ma, the Chamber Orchestra of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, the Choir of the State Orchestra of São Paulo, the Orchestra della Toscana, the Drakensberg Boys Choir, the Beijing NCPA Orchestra, and sand artist Jim Denevan.

 

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Poets, Prayers, and Radio Talk Show Hosts

A  Brief Review of Recent Popular Posts

Photo by Charles Kinnaird

Earlier this year my blog surpassed 600,000 page views (602,000 as of this date), so I figured it was time fora brief review of what’s happening at Not Dark Yet.

The Top Four Posts This Month

The top posts for the past month include two new ones and two old ones. My recollection of “Rush Limbaugh’s On-Air Reign” has been the most read piece this month. The second most read is an interfaith essay that was first posted during Ramadan in 2013, “The Lamps are Different but the Light is the Same.” 

Coming in at number 3 is “My Season with Dante,” a colorful account of my encounter with Dante’s Divine Comedy that began with an evening class at church and continued with my listening to the entire work on an audiobook. It was first posted in 2012 and includes illustrations by William Blake depicting the passage through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.  

The fourth most popular post this month was my review of all the Inaugural poets from U.S. Presidential Inaugurations (there have only been six, and I make a tenuous claim to have heard all of them in real-time). With “The Presidential Inaugural Poem: Calling Us to Our Touchstones” you can see and hear each inaugural poet from Robert Frost to Amanda Gorman.

Recent Popular Posts

Some of you followed my series about growing up in the Jim Crow South. “Growing Up under Southern Apartheid” featured 10 personal essays that spanned my pre-school and elementary school days in which I tried to convey what it was like in the days of segregation. There is an eleventh essay about my grandfather and his encounter with the KKK back in the 1920s.

There is still a lot more to tell about growing up in the segregated South and I have plans to continue the memoir series at a later date. For an index to all the stories so far go to https://notdarkyet-commentary.blogspot.com/2020/10/index-for-growing-up-under-southern_6.html.

During the past year, as one would expect, there were many essays and poems about life during the pandemic which we continue to live with even as we are finding hope with the vaccine efforts. Some of my poems are in a book that my writing group has published, The Social Distance: Poetry in Response to COVID-19. You can read about that in my September post, “PoetryDuring Days of COVID.”

In the Days Ahead

In the coming month of April, I will feature a variety of poets reading their work in celebration of National Poetry Month. Not Dark Yet continues to feature music on Mondays, haiku on Saturdays, and personal essays during the week with humor and recipes tossed in as well. I hope you will find something that piques your interest there.

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Friday Funnies: Green Grocer COVID Tensions

 

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Cartoon by Alison Wong at New Mom Comics

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