Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Poems remember the day of the earthquake

 Tuesday Poem
It's Wednesday 22 February - the day the earthquake struck Christchurch a whole year ago. The quake struck on a Tuesday, and Tuesday Poets this week -  30 poets from NZ, Australia, UK and the US - have posted poems that remember that time. Some written straight after the earthquake, some later. 
One of the Christchurch poets - Catherine Fitchett - hasn't the heart to post a poem, another- Helen Lowe -  has written a moving piece of prose about her feelings a year on and another - Andrew Bell - has posted a poem of restrained anger and sadness about the devastation of the world he loves. In the poets 'on sabbatical' on TP, you can find the poem by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman poor bare forked animal that rages, like Lear on the heath, against the earthquake, and a power poem written by Joanna Preston called simply Fault. Two Wellington poets, Mary McCallum and Tim Jones, have re-posted poems they wrote shortly the quakes - Earth (September) and Landlines  (February). 
Go to the Tuesday Poem community site to find all the poems linked in the sidebar. 
All the poems are ways to grab the stories and language of a terrible time and put it, for better or worse, on the page. To give them a kind of permanence. To help us understand better, perhaps, and to remember. 
Photo - NZ Herald

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