Martha Goddard — Poems
Two poems from one of our volunteers, Martha Goddard. Published as part of PLATFORM by Leah Jones — an online publication of art and writing from Open Eye Gallery’s volunteers.
MARTHA GODDARD
Cry
These white hot shards of broken glass
Pierce my molten chest.
The up and down, the ebb and flow
Won’t calm this painful mess.
I feel a rhythm in a cage
It quickens to excess
Until it’s broken free
It can’t be caged
It has to be expressed.
And now its made its way
Into my throat
A rope around my neck
And up it goes
To clench my eyes
I feel like I’m possessed.
Then
Sweet relief
The tears fall down
They flow without protest.
I pour this demon from eyes
And finally I can rest.
Amazon Dream
Once, I closed my eyes
And for a split second,
I felt as though all of civilisation
Could have been
Nothing but a dream
To wake up from.
I was gliding through the waters of
The Amazon River
And the last image left on my eyelids
Was that of beautiful long trees
And tall grass in water.
I thought of the modern world I knew;
A world where all
The technological advances form
An aggressive progression
From natural to manufactured.
The communication revolution,
The dirty machinery,
The endless pollution,
The accelerated growth
Of the human population.
Production, consumption, greed, war.
More, more, more, more.
Yet no satisfaction.
A world where oceans are filled
With plastic suffocation.
With mass production, intensive farming
All for us to gorge on.
A world where beautiful beings
Are driven to extinction
A world where the climate is changing,
Global devastation.
A world that is pushed to the brink.
And still the people do not think.
….
Then I opened my eyes
And saw nothing but the river
The long, beautiful trees
And tall grass in water.
All a dream
I thought for a moment
As the engine of the boat
Propelled me forwards.
