Friday, April 7, 2017

National Poetry Month Day Seven

Prompt:  Write a poem that explores beauty, love, joy in painful, tragic or sad time.  Allow the reader to experience these opposite feelings by juxtaposing beautiful images with less pleasing ones.  For example: falling in love during a hurricane, giving birth after being evicted.  Or write in first person that is inspirational to you in a not-so-perfect world.

Hell in Montana

A mushroom cloud
Appeared on the horizon
And stayed there
All summer.
Yellowstone burned.
Miles of forest
Seared, torched, charcoaled.

Armies with axes
An air force of bombers
Struggled against
The forces of nature
Advanced, retreated,
But stood their ground
At the Old Faithful Inn.

September 9, 1988
Seven stories of history
Faced a wall of flame.
With sprinklers and hoses
They drenched the roof
Choppers dropped slurry
The firestorm roared.

By late afternoon
The inferno moved on
The largest log structure
Stood, flags flying
In the clearing smoke,
Thanks to brave people
Who faced down the blaze.

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