At this time, last year, I was busy composing a number of poems. Having just completed three collections of music, 33 piano songs in the last 3 1/2 months, I have been pondering what to do next.
While thinking of the creativity that past pandemics had created, e.g. The Decameron by Boccacio, written during the time of the Black Death that killed a third of the population of Europe, I thought I would like to create some kind of anthology of music and poetry for the present pandemic.
I am calling this collection “Songs During the Time of a Pandemic.” To start, I began composing four poems, perhaps limiting the poems to no more than ten poems. The music I have not begun to compose.
I have below, the beginning of four poems. They will more than likely be adjusted, reworded, but it’s a beginning before they take their final form. I present them for you to consider.
PARADOX 1
A face painted with grief
Peers into the room
Through the window glass,
As the ventilator is removed
From a loved one, and
A last breath is taken.
A face painted with wonder
And excitement peers
Through the window glass,
As an infant is laid
In an incubator, and
The first of many breaths begins.
(c) 2020 by Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
DESERTED PLACES
Long deserted, those secluded spots
where sexuality was explored,
car windows fogged over
by the breath of its occupants,
shaky adolescent hands
fumbling with buttons and catches,
a stroke here, a grope there,
an indignant slap leaving its mark
across the cheek of the offending,
a hickey, like the mark of Cain,
adoring the neck of the willing.
A pandemic plucks the blossoms
Off of young adolescent love.
Social distancing hard to attain
In even the largest vehicles,
Near occasions of sin, both
Minor and major, out of reach.
The facial mask, the chastity
Belt for exploring lips, thwarting
even the most chaste of kisses.
The buildup of hormones threaten
To burst adolescents asunder,
Confessionals as empty as
Hospital maternity wards,
I fear for the propagation
Of the human race.
(c) by Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
NOT ALONE AND FORGOTTEN
The pandemic cuts a long swathe
Through the human population,
Bodies gathered and scattered
Through emergency rooms,
Intensive care units, and
Long lines of refrigerator trucks
Patiently waiting for its human cargo.
So many died unknown, seemingly
Forgotten by family and friends,
Their funeral, the quiet ride
To a mass pauper’s grave.
Though forgotten by humanity,
Not so by the One who loved
And named them at conception.
(c) 2020 by Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
PARADOX 2
So many walk,
eyes cast downward,
Draped in black,
Bruised and battered
By the sting of death.
Their loved one placed
Among the community
Of the non-living, who
Will now attend
To their future needs.
Across the town,
Faces lift skyward,
Adorned in white,
Young love’s promises
Dreams to be fulfilled,
And new life generated.
They take their place
In the community
Of the living, who
Will now attend
To their future needs.
Love triumphs over death,
Plucking from death its sting.
(c) 2020 by Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
