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The Pandemic

Unprecedented
Unprecedented
Unprecedented

Present distress
repeated, repeated
recent disease breathed
present unprecedented, sent in coughs.
Cough, cough, cough.
This disease sent on the air.
Cough, cough, cough.
Unprecedented present breathed in
unprecedented disease breathed out
unprecedented hand-washing
unprecedented deaths
dent the present.
Can’t breathe. Can’t breathe out.
Dented breathing. Cough.
Present deaths unprecedented. Enough.

Too many deaths.
Too many people. Too many families.
This time Covid19.
Another SARS disease present.
Unprecedented but not unexpected
2020.

Sue Foster
Poetry Theme(s):

Currently Popular Poems:

Becalmed

I can no longer dot the i’s, nor cross the t’s. A pale haze, like Sunday afternoons, pleasant after a glass of wine too many, drifts across my day. I am at peace. I find myself disposed to acquiesce, content to live life at this gentle pace, content, it seems, with how life’s focus, now diminished, takes on the softened blur of evening light. Something sharp is lost. But the time for mourning it is done. The wind that swelled the sails has dropped, the tide recedes, the fierceness of the sun is quenched, leaving the sunshine’s golden glow that speaks the lateness of the hour. A taste of salt upon my lips - no call for worry or regrets - a bitter-sweet recall of what has gone. Julia Duke
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Change

As  I stand with my feet in the ocean, and look at the setting sun, I think of how many me's, have stood in how many seas, but always stared at the same one. A snapshot of scenes in the movie of me, at various times of my being. A new version of me every single time; the same star I'm always seeing. It fills me with curious wonder, for the places that I may go; And the life that has yet to happen, and the things I have yet to know. Jess
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From one frog to humans, or 'Go dig a Pond'

Burnt summer, Another hot summer Without a drop of water I wait It’s only June. With ochre hives And forgotten tones Of emerald green Parched fields and thorny hegderows. A dead speckled wood I’d rather eat fresh Is on the menu today, tomorrow unknown. A bleak summer ahead, Our long forgotten cousins Creep steathily unseen Waiting silently for clouds. A buttercup-yellow Marsh marigold forest Croaked from Floating reeds and choked crispy chickweed. Andrew Toms
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Seasons

To each a season: the planets Turn in Kepler's gyre, Swelling the mental weather, Fattening the wealth Of light and dark I weekly Feel in my own solitude. To each a season: a death Of what was hard and cold: A burst of sun to break My hoary sadness And gild the shining tower I build around your smile. But let's not talk of sun But speak instead of life And all the things I feel When living through mortality. The lovely times We feast and meagre times We only feed on memories. I have my seasons. Tim Holt-Wilson
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Pandemic

Piecing together all our hopes and dreams, joining the broken fragments of our lives, managing the pain of another loss, full of joy when finally together, society’s fabric hangs by a thread. Julia Duke
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A Way of Life

It’s become a way of life this summer, the canvas bag slung over my shoulder hoping not to need it hoping the sky will stay blue long enough to get a walk by the sea. It’s become a way of life this summer, wearing my green jeans, wearing a matching sweatshirt to keep the wind out, wearing green wherever possible to match my green cagoule in case I need it. It’s becoming a way of life, it’s true, this life of uncertainty which nags at the back of your mind and keeps you constantly looking up the weather on your phone. It’s a way of life, this anxiety which sends me scurrying for help when it mushrooms out of control in the middle of the night. Julia
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River Stour Haiku

Wandering the bend, Bending around the wonder Meander reveals. Freda
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On The Beach

Mid-tide, I lay bemused, sun and breeze upon my face, pebbles hard and damp beneath my back, at peace; my ears and mind filled with boom and roar and rush and grate, eternal sound, unhurried pace of everlasting ocean, as its waves gather their brown relentless selves to crash upon the shoreline, white flurries marking their landing place. In that hypnotic space I wander back and forth in thought, that from the sea we came and that the sea will still remain, when, maybe our human race no longer walks the shores and no longer looks in awe at the ocean’s incomprehensible face. Jan Armstrong Photo by Mia Nicoll via Unsplash
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Behind Your Smile

Behind your smile, Is a heart that's filled with pain, Behind every gesture There's a walk down memory lane. For yesterday's troubles, Are torments of the soul, It's so hard to be strong, When life takes its toll. With every step that's taken, There's compassion for another, A listening ear always there, Guiding sons, daughters, mothers. Always so much easier, To hold up for a friend, When to go with your feelings, Seems to lead to no end. The whispers locked inside your head, Remind you, you're alive, With pretending and avoiding, You can easily survive. Giving in's not an option, When there are others to care for, So easy to pretend, When there's no help at the door. Depression, like a broken leg , Needs nurturing and healing. Don't treat it any differently, It's normal to have feelings. Out there is the help you need, To help and cope and manage, The troubles burdening your mind, To unload all the baggage. So while right now it seems each ...
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Chromatic Cornflowers

Chromatic cornflowers Pigments aplenty blooming Nowton park trooping. June colours endeavour A visual adventure Periwinkle magenta. Wedgwood, Delft blue The colours a clue To nectar collecting. Not Sainsburys points But food for honey A botanical checkpoint. Archie
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