[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.0.7″ custom_margin=”-47px||||false|false”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.26.7″ background_enable_image=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Ingenuecover.jpg” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.0.7″ width=”52%”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.0.7″ hover_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
The Earthquake<\/p>\n
The earth trembled
And rocked with the rolling surge
Of a colicky ocean wave
And glass bottles vibrated
Like echoing bells
And books leaped from
The library\u2019s rattling shelves.<\/p>\n
I awoke
And registered the earthquake
On my personal Richter scale
And finding that it rated
Far below the atom bomb
And the combat in Vietnam
And a Communist invasion
And ghetto riots and pollution
And cancer and injustice,
I said a prayer for those
Who place nature\u2019s hiccup
Above the unnatural cruelty
Of man\u2019s human nature.<\/p>\n
And then I went back to sleep.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Mary Kolada, age 19<\/p>\n
(published in Ingenue<\/em> magazine, December 1972)<\/p>\n I wrote this poem just after the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake. Since then, I\u2019ve experienced the Whittier Quake in 1987 and the Northridge one in 1993. Recently I found yellowing copies of Ingenue<\/em> magazine in a box of papers I was sorting.<\/p>\n The magazine sent me a check for $5, which I spent on 10 copies of Ingenue<\/em> at a local liquor store. When the clerk asked why I needed so many copies, I showed him my poem.<\/p>\n Ingenue<\/em> magazine no longer exists, but the sentiment I expressed in the poem still reverberates in a state shaken by earthquakes and a society rocked by injustices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.0.7″ custom_margin=”-47px||||false|false”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.26.7″ background_enable_image=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Ingenuecover.jpg” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.0.7″ width=”52%”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.0.7″ hover_enabled=”0″] The Earthquake The earth trembled And rocked with the rolling surge Of a colicky ocean wave And glass bottles vibrated Like echoing bells And books leaped from The library\u2019s rattling shelves. I awoke And registered the earthquake On my personal Richter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kaleidoscope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":534,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykoladascott.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}