Progress Forgiven

I forgive pylons that march across fields
where once glaciers sculpted valleys,
horses plodded down stone-walled lanes
and everything travelled by hoof and foot.

I forgive the engines that puffed their smoke
into the heaviness of time with dark intention
and a constant soundtrack of stridulation
against a sky the colour of congealed blood.

I blame greed and speculation
for the blight on civilisation,
the constant pressure from those with power,
the polished boot that presses faces into mud.

Kim M. Russell, 26th February 2019

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My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Blame and Forgiveness, also linked to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Tuesday Platform

Frank is our host for this week’s poetics and he tells us that he found M. Scott Peck’s Further Along the Road Less Traveled in a used bookstore a few weeks ago. He says it’s been a challenge to read and that one of the chapters is about blame and forgiveness – our prompt for today.

49 thoughts on “Progress Forgiven”

  11. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever. ”

    ― George Orwell, 1984
    I happened to see this today, and it seemed so apposite. You don’t usually write such angry poems, Kim. I like it.

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  12. It is a challenge to balance progress with being responsible for the consequences to nature and our lives. But I blame greed too for pushing us to the boundaries of disasters & killing some of our creatures.

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  15. This is really well done, Kim. You approach the topic of forgiveness and blame and our ever degrading planet in a forth right and earnest way. And those last lines work really well to spell out who the real villains are. Kudos!

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  17. someone once mentioned to me that the two world wars were financially motivated, reading your poem makes me think it might be true. so much for wanting a better live, when we trample those weaker and forsake our own humanity for the sake of progress. your middle stanza is brilliant, reminds me of Nikolas Tesla deep in the Appalachian woods testing his theories for the mas men of industry. I found this very raw and deep Kim, one of your strongest to me.

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  18. Oh, this is so well done — I was at once taken aback by this assertive tone, which makes for a brutally honest perspective of all that has been wrought by the ills of human greed and lust for power and control.
    I loved how you evoke the senses here; I can hear, smell, and see it all at once: “and a constant soundtrack of stridulation/against a sky the colour of congealed blood.”

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