Resilience

London Pride - a wild flower

Out of wreckage and destruction

broken streets in bomb blitzed London,

razed when warfare wreaked its havoc,

causing life loss and despair.

From the darkest, bleakest hours,

sprang the sight of tiny flowers

as they struggled through the rubble,

stretched their necks to breathe in air.

Where no other plant life flourished,

soon these pretty rosette faces

colonised the empty spaces,

spread themselves without a care.

Free and easy in surroundings,

pretty pink their pearly petals,

covered empty barren places,

stronger grew and settled there.

Out of wreckage and destruction,

when each day it's hard to function,

search for nature's wiser counsel,

grief a task we all must bear.

Let with time there come solutions,

every season brings a reason,

courage sent to help us cope

with welcome sprigs of new found hope.

Reviews

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

Christine, this is a wonderful poem and anthem for London and it’s struggle to survive the decimation of WW2. Great metaphor of the little wildflowers growing undauntedly through debris as they changed the landscape of destruction by being the visual embodiments of “resilience” and hope. Your uplifting and transcendent words, presented in a perfection of form, flow, cadence, imagery and rhyme, is truly Master-Class work. Brava!

[Chris Shaw]

Dear Annette, you are too kind with your wonderful review. I am so pleased that you enjoyed this poem, because I actually put a great deal of work into it. It makes me feel now as though it was all worth it. Thank you.

Chris

[Wild Rose]

Christine > I saw the destruction (on the filmreel news) Like we now see on out TV > Cities brought to the ground. shells of houses, people scrambling for survivors.
How can the repair all the destruction?

The birds return with their song
The weeds push up their tiny heads in cracks and crevises
Humans move the rubble into neat(ish) piles
Make themselves shelters from wood and tin sheet
Eventually a new city will grow

[Chris Shaw]

That's right Wild Rose. Life goes on, it's called survival. Thank you. A dreadful time for the UK as well as many others.

Chris

[Wild Rose]

Each time I see the pics on TV of people struggling to search for survivors I get flash backs to London in rubbles (as a kid) and think we survived

[Chris Shaw]

That's how it was for my parents and grandparents. All Londoners.

[Jimmy Yetts]

A uniquely fascinating perspective.
One utterly lovely and truly inspiring poem, Chris!

[Chris Shaw]

High praise Jimmy. Thank you so much for your lovely review.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this represents that smile that can warm a heart full of despair.
we need to bloom when times are at their worst.
this is so well done...
a very strong poem about pulling through in the worst situations...about coping...about surviving...

[Chris Shaw]

Hello Jacob. So pleased you liked this one. It did take time and effort to get it the way I wanted. Yes survival, the flowers represented survival when the chips were down. Thank you

Chris

[Nesu]

From the darkest, bleakest hours,
sprang the sight of tiny flowers
as they struggled through the rubble,
stretched their necks to breathe in air. - This hit so hard for me. Very beautiful piece. :-)

[Chris Shaw]

Thank you so much Nesu for your lovely review. I think you have singled out the lines that are also my favourites.

Chris