A Poem Inspired By A Line In Gregory Blake Smith's The Maze At Windermere Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

A Poem inspired by a line in Gregory Blake Smith's The Maze at Windermere
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
It is a collection of short tales
And in his tale,1863, before I lead
Into a discussion of the chosen line,
I shall comment on his excerpt from Longfellow's poem;

The excerpt began thus and was about a cemetery,
Which I found out is titled The Jewish Cemetery at Newport,
"How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves…"
And I am choosing a few more lines
That describe the beauty of the poem:
"Gone are the living, but the dead remain,
And not neglected; for a hand unseen,
Scattering its bounty, like a summer rain,
Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green.
……………………………………………
And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read,
Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead."

Was this a precursor to God's other injustice,
The Holocaust, I wonder, on this bleak morning
With its greyness shutting out the sun
And while I wait for the sunshine to bring forth its
Profusion of colours through the bevelled glass windows
I think on Smith's other line in the tale
Spoken through the female character's script;

"Perhaps, all we know are details
Perhaps, details are the thing itself"
And many a time, living distanced from
A certain tragedy or pandemic,
The details become the thing itself;

The horror of it all, or at times, the beauty of it all
Emerges to paint a realistic picture of the thing
That which lends character to a description
Or that which portrays the sadness of the reality;

I am not giving my usual attention to The Globe and Mail
Or to CBC's The National or to CNN
But am informed by these and other sources such as my family members
About the unfolding realities of the COVID-19 pandemic
And the details of all of these have become the thing itself to me
Not to mention the occasional passerby who has a mask covering his or her mouth, etc;

The editor of the said newspaper said caustically
That PM Justin Trudeau was encouraging a passive response from Canadians
By urging them to stay indoors and fight the pandemic
With only some activity and social distancing was a must;

The editor and shall we say, David Walmsley, said that
This is in contrast to Winston Churchill's cry
For a bold fight by the people
During the World War II years
And he criticised Justin Trudeau in no uncertain terms;

Mr. Walmsley, unless you want Canada as a nation wiped out
And irksome as it is to reduce our activity
And giving the Toronto Transit Commission a miss
Means a lifeless scenario to many for they have to work from home,
It is sane advice and shall prevent further deaths.