driving home from the holidays
we pass slant to rising rivers
see side road flooded
so only the tip of a stop sign shows
(how we are spared while others suffer)
how our feelings fail, blurring
sympathy, awe, relief
at highway speed
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Graceful Press Poetry 
And, how seldom we pause to consider the truth of your words. You outdid yourself with this one.
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Thanks very much for saying this. I wasn’t sure it would come out just how I intended.
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good point – we think we have it bad, but there’s always someone worse off than us – lovely poetry!
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“relief at highway speed. ”
Lovely poem, true and profound.
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Oh wow – very true. Wonderful poem.
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Jennifer – seems odd that you were traveling just a few miles north of us as the waters rose that day. We watched as the lake encroached into the meadow and onto the road, felt relief that our home was safe but for others in our communities, a day of tragedy and suffering. A lovely remembrance of the day.
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Even though we drove through torrential rains from Dallas through Oklahoma on the 26th, we really had no clue what kind of flooding was going on until later. Apparently we were just ahead of the interstate being closed in places. That one flooded road just stuck in my mind–trying to imagine how people were being affected.
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You only yourself lucky when you see others suffering
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Sometimes the feeling of relief mixing with guilt that we are, once again, the “lucky” ones.
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The first flooding one I’ve read. My head didn’t even go there! Well told!
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The last stanza is great.
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I just finished reading about the lingering effects of Superstorm Sandy and your sentiments in this poem echo my feelings at the end of the article.
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I love that connection, thank you.
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How rarely we count our blessings…
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I love the naturalness of your alliteration – it doesn’t feel contrived at all, and it evokes the sound of the water. Very cool.
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Love, love how you bring all those emotions together in the last couple lines!
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This one surprised me a little in what came out–I had been wanting to write about this but it was pretty blobby until I tried to fit it into 42 words. 🙂
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Love the way you’ve made this image you had into something more! I keep jotting down similar highway views from my travels but am never sure how to roll them into a piece. Yours, as always, is a great example!
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You have a beautiful way of describing your scenes. Can’t wait to “see” more of your travels. 🙂
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Aw shucks 🙂 I have lots of rough stuff written now.
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