As promised, here is my response to Write Better Poetry's "sound" prompt. It's a song Guy Garvey of the rock band Elbow wrote in response to two tragedies in his home country that happened a month apart: an apartment fire in London that killed over 70 people, caused in part by lax fire prevention regulations, and a politically-motivated suicide bombing at Manchester Stadium after a pop concert that killed 27 and injured over 1000. This is part of my "Elbow Project," a series of poems inspired by Elbow's words and music.
White Noise
But who am I, some Blarney Mantovani
with a lullaby when the sky is falling in....
―Elbow, "White Noise, White Heat"
White noise is supposed to soothe us,
but not if it comes from mashing up
voices in protest, and the screams
of innocent victims in an apartment fire
that could have been easily prevented
by landlords who gave a shit for safety.
It's not just noise if it's an echo of the bomb
that tore through Manchester Stadium,
killing twenty-three and injuring a thousand.
It's deafening, and I want to numb it
with a substance of choice.
What can I do? I'm just a poet, a songwriter,
a journalist, and essayist, an influencer.
But when the noise returns, hotter than before,
I try to separate the sounds, make sense of chaos,
and the outrage starts to pour from my pen.
with a lullaby when the sky is falling in....
―Elbow, "White Noise, White Heat"
but not if it comes from mashing up
voices in protest, and the screams
of innocent victims in an apartment fire
that could have been easily prevented
by landlords who gave a shit for safety.
that tore through Manchester Stadium,
killing twenty-three and injuring a thousand.
It's deafening, and I want to numb it
with a substance of choice.
a journalist, and essayist, an influencer.
But when the noise returns, hotter than before,
I try to separate the sounds, make sense of chaos,
and the outrage starts to pour from my pen.
1 comment:
Whoa, very powerful. Thanks!
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