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Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2020: Panopticon
by Tracey Rhys
A satirical poem in response to our appreciation of the natural world whilst in lockdown, when our lives slowed to match the pace of seasons, the passing of life and time. I wanted to write about the fickle swing, as we moved away from being consumers to becoming natural observers, and now for the autumn as we 'resume our lives' again. What might we learn from this experience, if only we keep looking?
Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2020: Panopticon
Why did we never clock the beauty
of our backdoor scavenger?
His red fur streaking from recycling bins.
What about the seasons, did they ever perform
such opera? In little buds and nesting birds,
a sparrow chick flattened to a biscuit in the lane,
a spoon-fed bee that drowned in nectar.
Did ever a summer seem so hot and self-absorbed?
Even the air shimmering over empty roads
seemed mime for the watchful.
And now for autumn with its early fall.
We never gave a shit before. It was only
that the children wanted conkers for the yard
and the leaves crunched underfoot like crisps.
Recording provided as part of Poetry Archive Now: Wordview 2020. Used by permission of the author.
A special thank you to our WordView 2020 poets.
Chair of the Judging Panel, Imtiaz Dharker, says: “The hundreds of entries we received blew in to the Archive like a breath of pure, unpolluted air from all over the world, revealing something of the time we are living in, some telling it straight, some slant. It was exciting to check in to the Poetry Archive’s Youtube channel every morning and come upon one unexpected voice after another."
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