COOK STRAIT ON A CALM DAY

This photo shows the approach of a storm in the Cook Strait. The sun is setting, the sea calm, the ferry untroubled on its way. The rainbow, however, marks a shower as the storm, right, approaches; and the fine settled weather, left, exits, soon to be lost in the dusk.

 

This can serve to background the poem, Storm, in my Heartscapes collection.

 

‘Sea birds, sentinels,

fleeing the black storm brewing in the Strait cry out their warnings

what’s up ahead:

the rising wind the stinging sand

the bone-chilling rain the  lightning-strikes: the beach a killing zone?

The soul says:

Shall we see light? Torrents wash us clean?

Wind blow through our mind?

Shall we know ourselves the storm over and gone?

The beach still, the sea calm rainbow preaching peace? Shalôm?’

Are we at a juncture of history like this? The black storm, right, approaching? But the rainbow holds out promise of a future. The ferry, hopefully, will make it to a safe haven. Or will it turn out to be ‘a ship of fools’ who didn’t see the danger, foundered?

 

Raymond Pelly Wellington, NZ, 2 July 21

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