i’d like to dedicate the following poem (which i wrote in the fall of 2005) to the victims of hurricane katrina…the hurricane formed on august 23, 2005 and hit new orleans on august 29, 2005…nearly 2,000 people died (and thousands more were affected) as a result of this natural disaster…

 

New Orleans

 

I

Crossing space, the natural acceleration

Wind and wave, the environmental devastation

Landscape, dismantled, in dislocation

Earth, uprooted, severed evisceration

Showcased, the city’s pulverization

Neighborhoods beat down, in dilapidation

Out of place, structure and foundation

House and home, decapitation

Everyplace in ruin, needing restoration

Storefront and business, vandalization

Music erased, quiet, no intonation

Silenced, sax and trumpet harmonization

The bone case, flesh annihilation

Corpse drifts by, in lifeless flotation

Displaced, parent-child relation

Friend and acquaintance, affiliation

In a footrace, to find family formation

Search lists, for personal identification

Misplaced, relative and kin location

To other states, through dissipation

Hungry-faced, with hand held out in expectation

Food and water, out of circulation

 

II

Poor and down-faced, forgotten aberration

Brought to national elevation

Black race, viewed in amplification

Human beings, seen living in marginalization

Collective conscious abased, alive at evocation

Inner sense, awakened at painful provocation

Though no trace, of official coordination

Authority, guidance and evacuation

Underestimated, government consideration

No help, from agency or organization

Disgraced, president on ranch recreation

This neglect, reason for confrontation

To save face, rushed to late visitation

Weak, the delayed amelioration

Worst-case, the historical ramification

Stories, passed on in passionate oration

God’s grace, breathed new life, resuscitation

Healing touch, sparks human regeneration

Tomorrow–make space, for return population

Residents start fresh, with new determination

Someday replace, this story of desperation

With hope, restore the soul of a nation.