Life in the Time of Corona Detail for Emerald Coast Writers

Life in The Time of Corona BG

Earth Day, 2020

Earth Day, 2020

Claire Massey

I roam woods nearly empty, detour to grow distance
when human voices intrude, entertain a childish notion
that Mother Nature has decided
I should not walk alone.

Is she a hobbled crone,
struggling to follow, scarred by her rages, weary from warring
for boundaries, balance?
No, not today. She’s agile, young, as she moves beside me,
keen hearing fine tuned,
scanning only for subtle, primal music. If she winces, head covered
against our wailings, who could blame her?

At trail’s end she pauses with hand upraised, urges
Listen.
No jet engines whining, no Ditch Witches digging,
no ocean liners churning waves of white noise.

For the first time, in a long time,
she cocks a pearled, oyster shaped ear, smiles
like Mona Lisa.

Her firstborns are singing,
the whale, the sandhill crane,
the south wind surging, ebbing,
the undammed river,
murmuring.

Life in the Time of Corona

Within weeks after March 11, 2020 World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, West Florida Literary Federation offered its writers a catharsis. By April, regional writers were submitting words and images to preserve this time in history. The ongoing project began with Phase I, a special edition of The Legend published in May. It featured more than thirty juried submissions. Life in the Time of Corona continues with Phase II, updated as submissions are accepted. Here are the voices of health care workers, poets, essayists, historians, and the images of artists and photographers, documenting this time in Northwest Florida's history. The ongoing project ends with the advent of a vaccine or declaration by the World Health Organization.

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