1996

[JamesSavik]

1996

I have seen the fire

Destroying everything in it path

In its blazing wrath

I have seen the fire

Bringing terror as its might

As it consumes the night

I have seen the fire

Slaying friends and lovers

Strangers and brothers

I have seen the fire.

Out of control consumning souls

Hell on earth a mass funeral pyre

I have been burned by the fire

With scars that don't show

The loss it still burns and stings

Friends and lovers I can not replace

I am haunted by their familiar faces

ashes and memories that I hold dear

Are all thats left of those times and places

I have seen the fire and the funeral pyre

When I saw the lights go out on my generation

And horror and confusion gripped the nation

Consumed in a viral conflagration

I look to my right and look to my left

at the lonely, empty spaces

I walk where we walked and talk where we talked

in the lonely empty places

and wonder to my self why am I still here

the smoke it still stings my eyes

Someone must be left to remember

The year that innocence died.

[colinian]

James,

1996 is an emotional, gut-wrenching poem. It's so sad! I read it four times, and I am stunned by how much it moves me. This is a poem that's going to stay with me. Thank you!

1996 fits the mood of what's happening in southeastern Australia. It lets us get into the heads of the survivors and understand what they are feeling.

You, sir, are a poet.

Colin

[DesDownunder]

Regardless of the disaster that inspired you for writing this poem, James, you have taken the subject and made it into a statement of the human condition worthy of being regarded as a masterpiece of Poetic writing. Therefore I have no hesitation in awarding my heartfelt appreciation for what I consider a great poem.

For Jamessavik's Poem

1996

[Richard Norway]

James,

That was simply awesome. I was mesmerized by it, but I was also very frightened. At the first line I was thinking of the fires in OZ and began to see the terror of what has happened there.

You did your job. You made me think...really think.

[Cole Parker]

James:

You continue to be able to move people and awaken the depths of their emotions with your writing. You have massive talent. The insight you bring to your subject, the parallel drawn, is wonderful and awful. This poem resonates.

Cole

[Trab]

Wow....ow

Amazing, horrifying, saddening.

[JamesSavik]

Bump for World AIDS Day.

Never forget.

[Merkin]

I have seen the fire

Slaying friends and lovers

Strangers and brothers

Yes.

Never forget.