Catastrophe!
Who has not viewn, (on film or TV screen,
Or the event itself), that awesome scene
When — from unstably-laden slope, with vibrant shock —
A sudden avalanche goes animate
To drop, with incremental volume, down
And, in its cloudy surf envelop, drown
Each intervening feature of the site
Within a roaring cataract of snow or rock?.
Who, on an unfamiliar expose
Of moor or mountainside, (or waters close
To shore-line or to reef), has not felt fear like foam
Smother hez doubtful heart when silently —
Deleting shapes, distorting sounds, (and hence
Disturbingly disorienting sense) —
Thick fog-banks fall to blot out totally
Such waymarks as might guide a stranger safely home?.
Who feels an earthquake violently shake
The whole environment, crumbling like cake
The ground and making solid structures fall —
Or finds hemself within the range of coarse
Volcanic ash-clouds and red lava-flows —
Or near some shoreline sees great billows
Tsunami towards land with fatal force —
Knows what it means to be in potent Nature’s thrall.
Who has not lived a like experience
Can’t say how clear minds bring intelligence
To see — amidst confusing states — how best
To wrestle safety from catastrophe
And find salvation, (in despite of fear),
By buttressing faint hope with strength to bear
Danger’s vicissitudes courageously:
Or how mock grim disaster with a noble jest!.
