29 responses to “Disasters hit – Rondeau for dVerse”

1. what can we say about “ism” poems?
   🙂

   • well at least there is humanism

2. Bjorn – a dark and scathing rebuke – but I still believe we are not beyond redemption – love the inclusion of the Picasso. K

   • I really hope so too.. But it’s depressing to start to think about it

3. I think this is dark, but hopeful- also, liked the verses very much.

   • The hope we can find within ourselves…

4. your last line says much. The world goes on and on and on, as do disasters. I am appreciating your rhymes, there is a certain comfort to the sounds.

   • Thank you, I had not thought about it… but the rhytm and rhyme brings a certain stability to the poem.. As Rondeau’s is a pretty strict form you get that for free 🙂

5. …disasters hit….manmade ones keep repeating…we have the tools to work toward getting along; the powers that be don’t use them…hence revolution….don’t get me started 😉 I was there in 2008, stood in the park they made surrounding the tree where people gathered

   • Yes we all have the tools to solve these things… but we have to look into our souls and see them.

6. oh,,,your poem has a great ‘bite’ to it !

7. Guernica hung in my nursery so I have a strange mix of responses to it, revulsion and succor intermingling. Jane mentions the rhymes and I think they serve to invoke that sensation here. Will we transcend our intense limitations? Will we value humans more than ideology? All important questions.

   • I agree.. the rhymes serve as a kind of death dance… Actually the Rondeau that is a great disaster poem is “Flanders Fields” by John McCrae…

     In Flanders fields the poppies blow
     Between the crosses, row on row,
     That mark our place; and in the sky
     The larks, still bravely singing, fly
     Scarce heard amid the guns below.

     We are the Dead. Short days ago
     We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
     Loved and were loved, and now we lie
     In Flanders fields.

     Take up our quarrel with the foe:
     To you from failing hands we throw
     The torch; be yours to hold it high.
     If ye break faith with us who die
     We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
     In Flanders fields.

8. Nice use of “disasters hit” in this rondeau. I also like your reference to Mammon…though I personally find the thought of Belial scarier..

   • Oh I agree… Belial and Mammon together is a scary pair…

9. Mammon..lack of ethics perhaps we could use some common sensism:)

   • Ha.. Brilliant

10. You hit the nail on the head, Bjorn. Worship of mammon is no doubt at the center of it all.

    • I really think so to. But as Rowan said Belial is maybe even worse.

11. I was not familiar with the Rondeau form. Any time we free form poets are saddled with rhyme, meter, syllable count, it both stimulates and restricts our creativity, pushing us into places both uncomfortable and exhilarating. Somehow your poems emerges both as existential and Dada, strict to form but free as thought; enjoyed it, sir.

    • Maybe, since English is not my mother tongue I feel less restricted by grammar :-)… but certainly rhymes is more restricting than meter to me. I usually try to tell a story or similar, as pure lyrical doesn’t fit me very well.

12. first…love that you included pablo’s guernica..and i sometimes wonder where our greed and egoism will take us..ugh…

    • Somehow all my week’s entries have been filled with pessimism of humanity. Strange, I am not particularly depressed, rather the opposite in fact. And Guernica was a perfect fit for my thoughts.

13. Mammonism results in our planets decayism…unless fundamentalism gets us sooner…
    We will learn when it is too late… (sadly)
    Anna

    • I think it’s too late already in many cases.

14. I enjoyed reading this poem, Bjorn. Not sure what that says about me! There’s another ism that we suffer from – and it is more dangerous than any of the ones you’ve mentioned, terrible though they are. I speak of narcissism – the love of self above all else. It is narcissism that allows us to demand our rights whilst shunning our responsibilities to others – and the results are plain for all to see.

    • Yes indeed. Narcissism takes egoism to a quite new level. But as I understand Jingoism it’s narcissism taken to a nation’s level… Collective narcissism – extremely dangerous.

15. Disasters are terrific…for they bring the feel of drowning with time and tide…depicted well ..

    • Thank you for that comment.. but how to accept and go on.

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