Under a larkful sky
grasshoppers percussion
the soaring songs
of blackbird thrush and warblers
One day the soundscape changes
huge wheels crunch gravel
metal bars clang scaffolding
bulldozers fume and bang
memory reforms, normalises
this hot dusty summer of noise
that ends abruptly
in sudden silence
an empty concrete space
where airconditioning hums
anticipating office gossip
at desks where sky
is invisible.
Listen Up for Read Write Poem
Like those last two lines!
ReplyDeleteI walked the dog this morning and the skies were so busy with birds...very exciting time of year.
x
Last few lines, just brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI've been really enjoying the birds in the trees in the field behind my house. Silence does indeed need reformulating.
ReplyDeleteI love this... and hate it too, of course. I want the sky to be larkful again.
ReplyDeleteIt is so difficult to comprehend the ways of human beings. We tend to destroy everything beautiful..
ReplyDeletemoon eats sugar puffs
This is also poignant, sad and lovely, Juliet.
ReplyDeleteGreat opening line. Scary ending. Powerful piece.
ReplyDeletePowerful, moving piece. I especially love how you end with a noise that contrasts so starkly with the beginning.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! You had me at the first line with "under a larkful sky" and I remained enslaved with wonder until the end.
ReplyDeleteThat is superb, Juliet. You are a fantastic poet. I love the key change in the middle, the sounds of the poem actually change through the onomatapaeic effect, the reforming as the cloud of dust settles, then silence. It is a fabulous active alive sound poem.
ReplyDeleteThis is great. The symbolism and the raping of nature was never so beautifully put(sorry for the raping comment couldn't think of a better way to put it). I live in a place where development is rampant and more and more green is disappearing, your poem hit just the right chord to capture the feeling when I drive by one of these construction sites.
ReplyDeleteExcellent Juliet! Poignant and powerful words that are close to my own heart...
ReplyDeleteI think I much prefer grasshoppers to airconditiong - a shame that natural sounds are being crowded out these days
ReplyDeleteya i like ending also....but it all is very good
ReplyDeleteWow! So much sound in your words. Love it!
ReplyDeletemy heart aches when i see all the 'development' destroying our natural habitat... great poem!
ReplyDeleteWe have an area of flattened land near us. It looks like wasteland and is registered as 'soon to be developed' but I hope they don't develop it too soon because, despite how ugly it appears to humans, it's actually busy with pipits, larks and little ring plover. You just never know....
ReplyDelete