Saturday, July 22, 2023

Blog Post by Helen Z.

Fever


Blue:

The sky, the flames, the sea.

Blue represents eternity;

Loyalty, imagination.


And yet, as days pass by,

All we see are carnation coloured clouds,

The orange lilies in our yard.

Wondering who’s next.


The neighbours died yesterday.

Or are they still clinging to life?

They should give up on such puerile behaviour:

Even the thought of recovery is romantic.


We live in a new world.

A new century approaches us.

Like Noah’s arc, only the faithful will survive.

May the Lord guide our fates.


- Helen Zheng

4 comments:

  1. That really good I liked great job

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am intrigued by the contrast between hopelessness in the third stanza and the possibility of survival in the last stanza!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! This is such a rich text that I went back to re-read it several times. The way you use color imagery is so powerful. Right from the start, it's so striking to start a poem called "Fever" (which makes me picture red/heat) with the word "blue" and a mention of something as tranquil as the sky.

    I think the second stanza is my favorite. The phrase "carnation colored clouds" sounds so beautiful and gentle, almost idyllic. Same with the orange lilies--but then you deliver a punch with the next line, when the reader realizes this is a poem about death.

    The narrator seems so detached in this piece that it creates an eerie, silent quality. So fitting to the subject matter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was moved by your descriptive powers in this work entitled "Fever". I thought that it was very clever to use the Sky as a metaphor for the changes that were also wrought by the Pestilence of
    the fever. I was especially delighted with the last stanza which provided the reader with a sense of Hope.

    ReplyDelete