Day 11- Pandemic Poem

A poem written in 1869, reprinted during 1919 Pandemic On investigation actually written for this pandemic on March 16th, 2020 by Catherine m. O'Meara, a retired teacher in the US. Entitled In the Time of Pandemic. It was written in 1869 by Kathleen O’Mara: And people stayed at home And read books And listened And they rested And did exercises And made art and played And learned new ways of being And stopped and listened More deeply Someone meditated, someone prayed Someone met their shadow And people began to think differently And people healed. And in the absence of people who Lived in ignorant ways Dangerous, meaningless and heartless, The earth also began to heal And when the danger ended and People found themselves They grieved for the dead And made new choices And dreamed of new visions And created new ways of living And completely healed the earth Just as they were healed. Reprinted during Spanish flu Pandemic, 1919 This poem is shared through Messenger by an old friend, Alan, flatmate in the late 1980's, Southfields, London. Facebook is a double-edged sword- it's making our media obsolete but it provides easy connection to faraway friends from faraway parts of our lives. In the present it allows us to share at the touch of a key. Things we wouldn't have found ourselves. Some magic in that. Yesterday a friend from Government Buildings days phoned- we worked together at the Department of Education in the early 1980's. Our work hours were structured by glide time, on other words by ourselves, and we had morning and afternoon tea breaks when the office downed tools to play half hour games of darts. It was a time when government departments were hopelessly over-staffed. In my job as junior advisory officer in the Buildings Division, I struggled to find enough work to fill my day.  And people could smoke at their desks. Ironically the connection we find through the internet in the 2020's crowds our work days. Paper-filled in-trays have been replaced by overflowing in-boxes we struggle to keep on top of. Achievement for today- I vacuumed my filthy car. It's been my work horse for moving out and during the build so far.  Darkness falls and I sit in front of TV peeling a sack of pickling onions. Officials have repeatedly said we won't see the effects of the lockdown for 10-12 days. At day 11 the curve seems to be flattening. The count is 89 new cases, total 1039, with 12 clusters which are 10 or more infections from the same place. The latest one is in Canterbury.

 Italy reports its lowest daily rise in deaths 681, for nearly two weeks and the number of patients in intensive care falls for the first time. Their total death toll is 15 632.