A sluggish ochre stream flows
Down once elegant marble steps
Between lichen and moss
Civilizations now are lost
Mighty cities we have built
Ten thousand years from now
Rusted stand their girders and beams
Reflected in the Sound
With heavy, plodding feet
Ghosts of memories
Walk streets
Through puddles dank and deep
Raucous cries of gulls
No longer fill the skies
Man's pollution has
Stilled their cries
Architectural remains
Silent sentinels they do stand
Witnesse's of man's
Destruction unto man
Author notes
Minor editing done on 1/27/2009 DCK
Minor editing done on 3/14/2009 DCK
Read at a Poets West Venue, Saturday, 4/18/2009, 4pm - 5:30pm DCK
To verify my membership, in this organization, just contact them, or for further information, just contact them:
http://poetswest.org/about.htm
In a list
- Archaeology • next in list
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Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 21 of 21
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This was a wonderful poem that really spoke about a great loss in humanity. Even sadder that everything else was lost along the way. A brilliant piece that said much and gave rise to many thoughts. Thanks for the read.
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...and yet it almost sounds lovely!
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Thanks for the comment, and applause. Two things inspired this write: a dead rat, which I saw, on a city sidewalk, and a puddle of what looked like wet concrete which may have had some rust in it (or something of an ochre color, anyway). Thanks again.
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This is really poetic and paints a vivid picture. You should watch for contests to enter this in.
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Thank you for your kind compliment; suggestion, and applause. I'll consider the suggestion.
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Outside of this line: Sentinels do stand, everything else is quite impressive. I don't like the "do" and find that it's completely unnecessary. With nuclear weapons abounding, your poem sure gives one cause to "think".
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I thank you for your very thoughtful comments, with which I do agree. Although, there could be additional interpretations of this poem as well. Thanks for the editing suggestion, with which I also agree. I made a change.
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Good write of a post-apocalyptic future, a bleak vision indeed. Write on - poems are one way of trying to turn back the tide of neglect and wilful destruction.
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This piece tells a lot. Man will be his undoing. I wrote some thoughts down on here and they are about human achievement and who will remember it when we are all gone. That is what the part about 10,000 years made me think of. A stunning piece by you, filled with imagery. I could almost smell the musky stiench of rotting wood and coroding metals that our planet will have courtesy of us!
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Thank you for your most thoughtful comments; compliments, and applause. I do appreciate them. I hope you have a good day.
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Bravo!
Destruction onto man says it all. We have to change our vision or the idea of totalitarianism agriculture. Meaning storing and keeping food for power.
This is mine and I can feed who I want because I can. Well said and hopefully we will understand how to undo what we have done!
Brilliantly Written,
Betsy holzner
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Thank you for your most thoughtful comments; compliments, and applause, for I do appreciate them.
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The message within your poetic words will fall on deaf ears just as it did since the Roman Empire. We are doomed to repeat history and all its mistake. Very few man made structures will even last a thousand years.
A great and informative write as always. Wonderful imagery. You take care. Smiles, Sandy
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Thank you for your most thoughtful comments; compliments, and applause. I do appreciate them.
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Kudos
Nice Write. Unfortunate how are society neglects the simple things... hopefully civilization will mature one day.
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Thank you for your comments; compliments and applause for I do appreciate them.
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wow
What a long flow of words, that run smooth. I really liked this poem. I lked the way you talked about the way the city was built. And talking about the rust. This is a different kind of read.
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Is it just an inevitable and horrid fate that we are racing to.
With no regard for life or nature?
I would say this piece more then proves that we are circling very close to the drain.
Your immense descriptions are just wonderful,
but the one word in the title gives it that knife turn...schemes....trickey...profit....no matter what is in the way or who gets stepped on or killed...
let the archaeologist find out in 100 years what happened here and how so few were so very wealthy.
Great write my brother,
Lowell
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Thank you for your most thoughtful comments; compliments, and applause for I do appreciate them.
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Very interesting post-apocalyptic poem. I like this sort of poem when it is well done. And this is very well done.
Great job.
Mike
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Thank you, my friend, for your comments; compliment, and applause. I do appreciate them.
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