By Tadhg Peavoy
In a career spanning over a decade, my work as a writer has taken me through many different genres and spheres, and as a travel writer, across continents, oceans, deserts, mountains and cities.
During this period of global pandemic, lockdown, shut-in and health and financial instability, a 2km travel limit has been implemented in Ireland, which has curtailed my wandering nature, and turned my eye inward to self-reflection and the nature of humanity: where we are at as a people, and where we might be going as a race.
The lyrics of REM’s Michael Stipe, “it’s the end of the world – as we know it”, have resonated strongly with me over the course of this crisis; the poignancy of the idea of “as we know it” rather than forever, makes sense to me, and creates a sense of this change being one about opportunity, as well as difficulty.
I’ve distilled some of my thoughts on these concepts into the poem below.
Appreciation
March 2020
By Tadhg Peavoy
(For the audio version click the play button below.)
Where there is change, there is hope
Dublin town in the middle of a near lockdown
Driving through the streets of the Dirty Old Town
St Patrick’s Day, but not a soul on those streets
Completely empty
Silence echoing
On a day known worldwide for raucous noise
As the world begins to adapt
To a virus from the east
Corona
Corona taking over
Peace by piece
Country by country
Infection by infection
A virus that is spreading
Through our own bodies
Changing the world we knew as normal
Recovery is the end game
Humanity will survive
Solution will be found
Change will come
But change leads to difference
A different world
A post-global corona crisis world
One where health and security
And appreciation
Are all viewed in different ways
In different lights
To the way they were before
Before corona came
Like a wave crashing in from the east
Across the globe
But it can bring good, as well as the bad
That it has already brought
Appreciation of each other
Appreciation of what one has
Appreciation of humanity
Appreciation of the Earth we live on
That has been taken for granted for far too long
This our chance to learn to appreciate
Appreciate the world
It’s our home
It’s all we’ve got
Appreciate it
And vow to make it better
Where there is change, there is hope