The coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading worldwide and various Governments feel obliged to take various emergency measures; it all smacks of Big Brother to me although needs must we act responsibly and conform to a whole new socio-cultural-political mind-set.
Whatever, let's stay calm folks, use our common sense, trust our basic survival instincts and we will get though what appears to be the worst global crisis since the second world war. Remember that thousands of people still die of flu every year, and there has only been a vaccine available for about ten years; while this corona virus is clearly far more serious than an outbreak of influenza, we all need to stay positive and help each other as best we can.
As always, the sick and elderly are the most vulnerable among us so we especially need to rally on their behalf, even if it means getting to know neighbours who are all but strangers; we are a common humanity, after all ... are we not?.
Me? I will be 75
later this year and have been living with prostate cancer since 2011. I live
alone, and mostly stay in touch with friends by phone as many have had the good
sense to move away from London. It gets lonely sometimes, yes, but let’s face
it, not seeing many people has its advantages during a pandemic. Meanwhile, I
continue to take each day as it comes, and hope for the best ...
Oh, yes, the poem … It has already appeared on both poetry blogs and repeated
on my general blog; a reader has asked me to repeat it here also “… especially
as legend has it that Apollo swings both ways.”
Old gods, new ways, first dawn, last sunset…world ending with a bang or a whimper, I wonder?
Bearing in mind Apollo’s sexuality, I like to think he shares with us the same true grit that has seen LGBT communities worldwide survive against any bigoted heterosexual odds for centuries. Long may he shine upon us.
Nature may well hold
most if not all the answers, but wears them close to its heart, and who can
blame it given humankind’s predilection for demanding (and getting) its own way,
no matter who gets hurt or what damage done in the process…? The natural world is
likely to endure long after humanity has failed to learn anywhere near enough from
a catalogue of mistakes, not least underestimating climate change; each and every
of us need to take our share of responsibility more seriously; less of dropping
our rubbish in the streets and on our beaches as good a start as any…?
As for humankind, we can but trust those faceless mandarins stalking the corridors of power across the world may yet be named and shamed, replaced by those whose feeling for humanity is not above demonstrating some old-fashioned common sense as well as proving just how actions speak louder than rhetoric when it comes to Green Issues.
TO APOLLO, OVER
Broken statues in the
dust,
marking many a historic dawn,
shooting long shadows
Far, far, these shadows
fly
across our much-damaged land
like many arrows
Into a poor scholar’s
dugout
an arrow makes its presence felt
at Apollo’s early
rising
Red sun shining on our dust,
revealing broken statues
weeping
and bleeding for us
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