Here's a Pandemic Poem for 2020, Have you?

Have you?

Have you cried
in the street yet?

Have you?

Or watched a family
walk past, masked,
heads down,
the littlest child in arms,
the only one looking out?

Have you seen anyone
burst into tears,
and grasp their heart,
bent double, breathless,
grief the truth of everything?

Have you wandered at
the edge?
Tears leaking into your mask,
and you thought it was
soggy before?

Have you stumbled?

Have you stubbed your toe,
dropped your phone,
dipped to the other side
of the sidewalk,
stepped in front of a car
or almost been killed
by irony, yet?

Have you lost your mask?
What else have you lost?

Have you noticed there are
fewer neighbours to greet you?
Have you wondered where
the humans are now?

But let us yearn for each other still,
Before we have forgotten how.

PD/Dec 2020

Well friends, 2020 is blessedly almost behind us (not fast enough, frankly). 

How have we all coped with this, the Great Pause, the calamity of our time? 

For me, I've spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the classics (Donne, Milton, Jonson, those guys knew a thing or two about plague, boredom and loss). 

I finished a book, FIREFLY is coming out in February, 2021. I also finished a sequel to OCULUM, which is currently with my publisher. I've also worked on two new novels, still in early stages.

So, I coped partly by disappearing into my head and imagination. I suspect a lot of artists found solace in their art this year. Even if they didn't do their best work or found it slow going, creation is balm.

I also played a lot of guitar, composed enough and recorded 11 new songs which will be out in an online album early in 2021. My musical partner is once again the wonderful Allister Thompson, stay tuned!

I walked through the city. I worked out every other day. I watched too much NetFlix. I missed everyone.

AND I wrote A LOT of poetry, some of it pretty bad, some of it mediocre, and some of it might be reasonably good (impossible to say, really, since the poet can hardly be objective). 

However we cope, I hope, as we all do, that 2021 brings us all some relief through vaccination and targeted treatment. Until then, let's hold on to what we can (including books!), and try to stay at least partly human, however we manage to do it.

Please enjoy my recent poem about life at the moment, above, "Have you?" See you in 2021.

More PANDEMIC posts on this Blog

More POETRY posts on this BLOG