Tag Archives: Covid 19

From the depths of Covid

April 26, 2022Corona, poem, PoetryCovid 19, Life, poem, poetry, springThe Cheesesellers Wife

In the opening of every bud there is decision

enacted in unknown unforeseen circumstance

their holding through winter an act of faith

their unfurling in spring an act of hope

I am open to blue and a warm sky

to healing, renewal and hope

to the fluidity of birdsong in chill air

Ground-glass opacity

March 30, 2022Corona, poem, PoetryCovid 19, Life, poem, poetry, published poemThe Cheesesellers Wife

Soft as a blown rose, a tiny killer
seeps into your everything even white bone.
Sharp receptors grip like crampons as it
climbs down the chimney of your throat
to the soft hinterland of your lungs
ripe meadows about to be trashed.
Once base camp is set up
it storms your defences
you die hard and slow
fighting for every breath.

This poem was first published in Issue 30 (the Covid issue) of Amsterdam Quarterly March 2021:

Home

Now

February 5, 2022Corona, Life, philosophy, poem, Poetry, winterAngela T Carr, Covid 19, Life, philosophy, poem, poetry, winterThe Cheesesellers Wife

As winter, and so much else
winds to an ending
we begin the work

to forge paths back into the world
to be able to walk out without worry
to travel and explore new places
new thoughts, new ways of living

we must be gentle and patient
give grace to the vulnerable of body and feeling
as we each find our own pace in the years ahead

Inspired by, and in some places using the words of, Angela T Carr.

a dreaming skin – Writing, Poetry & Creativity | Angela T Carr, Dublin, Ireland (wordpress.com)

Starlorn in the Aftergloom

December 15, 2021Corona, poem, Poetrycorona virus, Covid 19, Dverse, Life, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

Adrift on infectious tides
wandering and wondering
we are in craxis

No action should be aimless now
but if only they could be
and we were free again

This poem was written in response to a prompt at Dverse, where we are challenged to write poetry using one or more of ten words selected from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig.

I have used three:

Starlorn: a sense of loneliness looking up at the night sky, feeling like a castaway in the middle of the ocean, whose currents are steadily carrying off all other castaways.

Aftergloom: the pang of loneliness you feel the day after an intensely social event, as the glow of voices and laughter fades into a somber quiet.

Craxis: the unease of knowing how quickly your circumstances could change on you- that no matter how carefully you shape your life into what you want it to be, the whole thing could be overturned in an instant.

Locked away

August 14, 2021Corona, poem, Poetrycorona virus, Covid 19, lockdown, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

It was too quiet in those weeks
no cars rumbling past
no children singing their way to school.
The fresh smells and colours of Spring
reclaimed streets and towns
birds popped into view, posed on lampposts
dawdled on warm car roofs
sauntered across unbusy roads.

Fear has a taste and it is this
the dread of an invisible invader
the unwelcome peace of a street.

Another memory of the first UK lockdown in March 2020

When?

July 24, 2021climate, Corona, Life, poem, PoetryClimate crisis, Covid 19, hope, Life, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

When this all settles
I will walk along a stony beach
Stepping across rock pools
Looking for fossils
Life has been here before and will be after

Nothing was ever certain
Life was always frail
A bubble has burst
But we will float again
Life is all we have, treasure its small joys

When this all settles
We must mourn the dead
Unpick our mistakes
Grieve for lost chances
Life for us should never be the same

We have another danger
That may take us all
This is a rehearsal
Now we must save our world
Our grandchildren must live and thrive

Remembering Lockdown

July 17, 2021Corona, poem, Poetrycorona virus, Covid 19, lockdown, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

It was almost a living thing, large and smothering
that pinned us down and
which seems to have shed hairs everywhere,
I’m still finding them, clearing them away.

Days melted into each other
alone in this vessel of a house
plunging deep depths of fears and anxieties
climbing swallowing waves to see clear skies.
Gradually ending more and more days with a muttered
“That was a good one, wasn’t it?”.

Absorbing ourselves in the minutia of gardening
seedlings as companions, hope for some future
and canny planning for food supplies.
A returning shopper asked what is it like out there
as they washed clothes, hair and body
and we wiped clean all they had brought back.
No eggs this time.

Remembering the first UK Lockdown, in March 2020, an unsettling frightening time.

We are not out of the woods yet. This past week we have been isolating with a sick adult son who was in contact with a confirmed Covid case. We are waiting for test results, but the labs are slow due to 1.6 million poeple isolating this week and getting tested!

At least in full lockdown we were allowed to leave the house for exercise — I’m feeling very confined.

Fret not too much — so far, the effects are light.

linked to – earthweal open link weekend #75 | earthweal