The Diameter of the Bomb – Yehuda Amichai

In light of yesterday’s bombings in Boston, this poem seems all the more poignant. Thank you to Asha Mokashi for sharing it.

The Diameter of the Bomb

by Yehuda Amichai

 

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters

And the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,

With four dead and eleven wounded.

And around these, in a larger circle

Of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered

And one graveyard. But the young woman

Who was buried in the city she came from,

At a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,

Enlarges the circle considerably,

And the solitary man mourning her death

At the distant shores of a country far across the sea

Includes the entire world in the circle.

And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans

That reaches up to the throne of God and

Beyond, making

A circle with no end and no God.

While there is still time…

Funny old thing this t’internet.

I was chipping-in to a thread on Linked In about poetry when I got chatting to a young lady from India, by the name of Asha.

She has a blog called While There Is Still Time which is quite inspirational. There, you’ll find a veritable treasure trove of literary prowess to satiate your creative soul.

The name of the blog is from a line in one of Philip Larkin’s poems, called The Mower.

It’s a poignant poem about cherishing what we have before it’s too late.

After you’ve read it, you might want to pop over to Asha’s blog and immerse yourself into a sea of semiotics.

THE MOWER
By Philip Larkin

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found

A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,

Killed. It had been in the long grass.



I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.

Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world

Unmendably. Burial was no help:



Next morning I got up and it did not.

The first day after a death, the new absence

Is always the same; we should be careful



Of each other, we should be kind

While there is still time.

http://whilethereisstilltime.blogspot.com/