Life in the Times of Coronavirus: Lockdown Day 21
Today marks three weeks of the government-enforced lockdown in Spain. Having surpassed 110,000 (!) infections, Spain now has the largest amount of COVID-19 cases in the world excluding the United States. Take that how you will, though, considering that more than 30,000 people have recovered from the illness, and that a very small percentage (about 6%) require hospitalization. Not the best news, but not the grimmest news either. That’s what I’ve learned to do these days: read very little bad news and supplement it with other, positive happenings around the country. Today it was the growing amount of cured people being let out of the hospital.
Three weeks in, and we’re pretty much used to being indoors. It’s been raining pretty much all week (this afternoon the sun has decided to make a brief appearance), so I haven’t been exactly dying to get outside either. But there are times like this morning when, facing a stressful situation at work, I would have picked up my laptop and headed to one of the local terraces in my neighborhood. I would have ordered a beer, followed by lunch, and listen to the birds chirping and the soft buzz of traffic as I worked.
So, instead, I had to muster up the strength for the millionth time since the lockdown came into effect and find a way to calm down and destress from a situation that would seem banal any other day. I wrapped up my work and opened several books to search for poems that would bring me comfort and transport me to another place, even if only temporarily.
I first turned to “blessing the boats” by the immensely talented Lucille Clifton.
may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love you back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that
I love the line of “the lip of our understanding” – the edge of something that has yet to be seen. But my favorite line was definitely about the “tide/that is entering even now…/carry you out/beyond the face of fear.” I found this to be comforting on many levels: the tide is unstoppable and it will, indeed, carry all of us to the other side, beyond the face of fear.
I also ran across this beautiful poem by Derek Mahon called “Everything is Going to be All Right.”
How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.
Those last five lines were just what I needed to read today to help me remember that despite these challenging times, “the sun rises in spite of everything” and we will indeed be all right.