power outage by Marianne Jones

July 25, 2023
Poem title: power outage Poet name: Marianne Jones Poem: Abrupt silence signals a change: high winds have rendered hydro impotent, that umbilical cord that nourishes our habits; I can manage, know how to light a fire, have candles and flashlights at the ready; throw on a sweater, plan cheese and crackers for supper, but this enforced quiet is sandpaper to my patience. I resent the weather jettisoning my agenda without my permission. I have lost the way of being still, of enjoying beauty as it is given, gratuitously, the reliable flow of electrons controlling our behaviours. with no thought of harvesting, of profitability or hoarding. Be still and know, says God. Be still, we tell children and they are no more anxious to obey than we. Yet it is in the still moments between breaths that we draw life. Those moments of staring at a hole we have dug with our ungloved hands, Smelling the turned earth and noting the grime-stained cracks in our fingers, those long seconds of considering, of pondering, of noticing and wondering. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Marianne Jones Previously published in The Poetry Matters Project, 1st place, Summer 2019. Marianne’s work has appeared in Wascana Review, Room, The Danforth Review, and numerous anthologies, as well as winning awards from The Ontario Poetry Society, The Poetry Matters Project, NOWW and Writer’s Digest. Three of her poems are engraved in stone benches at Thunder Bay’s Marina Park. Her novel, Maud and Me (Crossfield Publishing), about a fictional friendship between a woman in Marathon, Ontario, and the late L.M. Montgomery, won the 2022 Best Fiction Award from The Word Guild.