Hurricane Katrina survivor waits with dog for help
New Orleans – Louisiana – United States – August 2005
Photo Credit: Hurricane Katrina
My Poetry Corner August 2014 features the poem “When the Storm is Forgotten” by Saul Murray, an African-American poet, songwriter, and performing artist. Murray’s poetry blends the rhythms and themes of Beat and Black alternative hip hop.
Written in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005, Murray’s poem is not a reflection on the storm itself. Instead, it presents a dismal view about American life: complacency, self-centeredness, pride, violence, celebrity worship, and more. When the storm is upon us, we become vulnerable. We learn that our survival depends upon others.
The poet calls on us not to forget the storm. When we forget the storm, the struggle to change our lives comes to an end.
The inspiration for my Haiku poem, “In Denial,” came from the repetitive first line of Saul Murray’s poem: When the storm remains distant… In California where I live, drought and firestorms have already reached critical levels.
Read “When the Storm is Forgotten” and learn more about Saul Murray’s work at my Poetry Corner August 2014.
Three Worlds One Vision 
Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.
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Cyril, thanks for reblogging my post. You’re the best!
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A powerful poem, for which you have my thanks for posting it. As I think about the need to remember the storm, I wonder if we humans have a particularly difficult time doing so because of our evolutionary history. Those early humans who focused too closely on the memory of their hard times might have been less able to shake off the fear and pain of such difficult moments. In turn, they might have been less optimistic and resilient — less likely to weather the next storm. If this conjecture is close to the truth, they are probably not our ancestors. We are the distant children of those who had a significant ability to “move on.” There is, I suspect, a fine balance needed between remembering pain and forgetting it.
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Dr. Stein, thanks for your insight. I assume that you’re thinking about traumatic events that prevent us from moving forward. While this does happen, I believe that remembering the hard times prepares us for facing similar or worst conditions in the present and future. Remembrance doesn’t have to become an obsession.
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I’m thinking about trauma, but also the balance between remembering and forgetting, and optimism vs. pessimism. Successful athletes generally are said to have “short memories” of their failures. If they dwell on those events, they are less able to perform successfully even later in the same game or the next day. I suspect (only my conjecture here) that early humans had to have a number of people with the same kind of “short memories.” They needed, as you say, to prepare for the future for long enough to to be better able to “face similar or worst conditions.” If too many became discouraged, however, the group probably perished. You and I may be getting to the same place, but using different language or coming from different points of view. In any case, “the storm” surely must be remembered, at least for a while.
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I agree with both of you, Rose and Dr. Stein, though I see us much more in danger of forgetting than dwelling on events – as if the world begins with us and has no history. Excellent poem by Murray, strong and unsentimental.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Angela.
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