AFTER THE HURRICANE

We have been traveling in Europe for 6 weeks, arriving back in the US September 28th just as Hurricane Ian hit our home town of Naples.  Finally finding a way back 4 days after it hit we gratefully found our home and community which is 4 miles from the beaches, unharmed, unlike much of Naples.  This episode focuses on Hurricane Ian's impact in Naples, nature's resilience and my other "hurricane experiences".

Transcript

AFTER THE HURRICANE

Downtown piles of debris

water-logged mattresses 

broken refrigerators

smashed furniture

memories dissolved in soggy photo albums

piles of mud and sand block beach roads

the low lying ancestral homes

reduced to empty wet shells

The machines and the workers 

unemotionally keep clearing the way

for the home owners to return

to see what remains and what to do now.

I return to nature and the preserve

I feel the warm air and gentle breeze on my skin, 

My feet create sounds as I walk  

I hear the crunch of  Pine needles and cones

I hear the crackling of the dried out leaves of live oak trees

I  hear the snapping of fallen Pine branches

I hear the singing of returning birds and the buzzing of insects 

I see the unbroken flexible palm trees

The dead fronds of saw palmettos.

The wet prairie has new rivulets weaving towards the horizon.

A lone great egret stands in the tall grasses

Still as a statue, staring and searching

The bright blue dragonfly dips over the fresh puddles

Around the pond cypresses .

The water flows high in the mangroves

covering the normally visible new black mangrove roots

a few broken branches block my way through

Below the surface the fish nurseries have been protected

Above the spider’s webs blanket the tunnel

as the blue and tricolor herons fly over my head.

Nature has weathered the storm better than humans!

MARSH TRAIL WALK

I remember a time years ago

arriving to work in Puerto Rico

to be stranded in the concrete hotel

by a sudden hurricane.

Watching in amazement the flexible palms

bending low, bowing to the wind

Loose wood and corrugated metal sheets

flying wildly around the streets

while fool-hardy people ventured out

with either a death wish or a prayer. 

Now on MARSH TRAIL

I know Hurricane Ian was here

five days ago.

Swirling and howling winds

toppling trees and snapping others

seemingly a random pattern of destruction,

picking up surprised mullets and tarpons

throwing them onto the rocky path

now left as skeletons by grateful birds.

In the early morning sunrise 

In the stillness and silence 

the marsh full of clean water

moor hens and ducks float along

The tall mangrove rookeries 

Wait for the sunset return

Of flocks of ibises, egrets and herons

To rest and shelter here again

as they did while the storm raged.

ANOTHER HURRICANE STORY

I am in Iceland (August 2011)

sitting in a cafe in Rejavik

finally connected to the internet

after a glorious week of hiking

Across frozen glaciers, steaming volcanoes and icy rivers

ready to go home.

The email simply says 

due to Hurricane Irene

all flights to the US are cancelled.

For one week i cannot leave,

I bike around

seeing beautiful sculpture gardens

in a town now full of a music and poetry festival

I surrender to the icelandic way

when summer sunny days are long

a starting soak in the geothermal hot tub

ending with herring and beer.

©MartinStrasmore2022