Tag: tragedy

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Poet Dave Whippman

GOOD COPY

Auden was wrong: sometimes the world can
Stop, watch and wait, hold its collective breath
After some outrage of nature or Man.
There is no equality in death
But hierarchy; grief is sorted.
Two minutes observed silence for some,
The rest unspectacular, unreported –
For most of us, tragedy will come
Privately: the policeman at the door
Bringing terrible but personal news.
If, as the victim, you want something more,
You need numbers, and photographic views:
Towns ruined by bomb or wave, something scenic.
Grief, to be shared, must be photogenic.
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Dave Whippman is a UK poet and prose writer. He lives in the north of England.
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Poet Rachel Bentham

Quaking. (New Zealand.)

The glasses clinked on their shelves,
a sign we recognised. Unperturbed,
I moved to the kitchen doorway –
doorways were supposed safer,
the frying pan still in my hand.

The floor shook as scales shake
when you weigh yourself, an
insecurity underfoot. But it didn’t
stop. The shake became a roll,
a house beginning to canter.

My father at the head of the
dining table, rose slowly to
his feet. I saw his hands grip
the table edge. ‘In a minute
I’m going to be frightened.’

And I knew he already was,
from the colour of his knuckles.


Rachel Bentham is an award-winning internationally published poet and novelist from Bristol, England. She lives there with her four children, and is “rarely bored.”
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Thanks for reading Poets for Tsunami Relief.

Please consider a donation to The Red Cross.

In Canada, go to: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000043&tid=016

In the UK, go to: http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now

In both Canada and the US, click on the red buttons I’ve added on my sidebar

(red buttons are on the home page http://atomic-temporary-2589064.wpcomstaging.com), top right.