Poetry Challenge: Free Verse

With April being designated as National Poetry Month by the Academy of American Poets Associated Content continues to celebrate with poetry challenges. As an AC Content Source and a self proclaimed poet I am more than pleased to have the opportunity to participate in these challenges.

Todays challenge is to write a free verse poem on current news events. I knew this morning I wanted to write something about the terrible twisters that tore through Tennessee and Kentucky leaving a warlike aftermath in it's path. My heart aches for these families and the loss they must be feeling. I live just a few miles from Chapman and Manhattan, Kansas, two towns hit by tornadoes in June of 2008, and have seen the devastation and listened to the stories of those affected by that twister. I have also witnessed the victories and the rebuilding. The coming together of families, friends and strangers to rebuild homes, schools, churches. I've seen people mourn their losses and then pick themselves up, take back their spaces and make it better. I am sure those in Tennessee and Kentucky will do the same. It is from this sense of wonder and pride that I write.

Home

Built of wood, of brick and glass,

Of blood and sweat and tears,

It did not last.

The hopes and dreams of many,

Swept away within a mighty flash.

A tantrum so vile and twisted,

Carried the remnants of their lives,

And scattered it across the barren plains,

Nothing to survive.

But as the Phoenix rises from the ash,

So too they shall rise again,

To rebuild their hopes, their dreams, their faith,

Within this land, upon this place,

The place they call their family home.