In a village in Aceh province...

[nostamj]

Banda Aceh, Indonesia -- Airborne military patrols scoured inaccessible sections of Sumatra island Thursday and discovered that swaths of land are inundated and that roads, villages and bridges have vanished. After helicopter flyovers, rescuers estimated more than 80,000 deaths in the region and described the scene as catastrophic.

"The scale of devastation is huge, bigger than imagined," said Emil Agustiono, a government official helping coordinate the Aceh relief effort.

a village in Aceh province

In a village in Aceh province,
There are no words,
There are no stories,
There is no one to speak them,
From this village of Aceh province.

In a village in Aceh province,
There is no one to remember,
The maps of homes and neighborhoods.
The gossip and myths and the names of neighbors--
Lost to a village in Aceh province.

In Aceh province,
A place that always was there
Is there no longer.
A contraction, a redacting,
Of elemental indifference.

A village once part of the province of Aceh,
Drowned in the greater din of death that day,
Must be mourned--nameless--by strangers.

December 31, 2004

[idiosyncratic]

1. Thank you. This might be a picture of the place you describe.

[nostamj]

2. there's one I saw that's actually much worse

it shows where virtually half of the land the village was on is now completely gone. like a huge bit was taken out of it....

[idiosyncratic]

3. Is it this one?

[nostamj]

4. yes, that location but

the pic I saw was closer and the angle was different.

[nostamj]

5. .

[Robbien]

6. thanks

beautiful words for such a sad sad disaster

:cry:

[nostamj]

7. thank you....

of course, much too grim for a NYE posting but... what the hell. a few people (like you) will appreciate the effort.

my other recent poem on the disaster (which has slipped away now):

a four year old boy survives for two days in a tree following the Indian Ocean tsunami

Two days in a tree–
This is not the world I knew.
I am four years old.

Where is the sea's smell?
Dead rats make a stink like that.
I am four years old.

I am four years old.
She always had time for me.
Tell her I'm not lost.

Two days in a tree–
I thought I heard birds crying,
But heard friends crying.

Tell her I'm not lost–
After two days in a tree,
Now, I'm in a bed.

I am four years old–
And I can only tell them
The name I answer to.

I am four years old–
Should I smile for the bright lights?
Do I have more tears?

Tell her I'm not lost
And surround me with cousins
While I'm in this bed.

It stinks, underneath.
Outside of the room, rats rot.
Where's the sea's smell?

Two days in a tree–
This is not the world I knew.
I am four years old.

[jdj]

8. thanks for this and the Aceh province tune.

On a better note, they just covered, Sumulu, Indonesia island (sp?) is okay, because they always evacuate to higher land when they feel an earthquake. The northern shore is gone, but very few fatalities. It's a MIRACLE. I am so happy for this good news, I am thrilled beyond belief. The island itself is a few miles from the earthquake, it was shifted over, from the quake, but passed generally by the tsunami.

[nostamj]

9. i saw that story too...

a bit of light in the deep deep darkness.

p.s. there are no 'tunes' for these. they're poems.

[Robbien]

10. Thanks again

Your talent for putting this situation into the right words gets lost in this fast moving forum.

Thanks again for re-sharing the little boy poetry which got lost in the archives before I had an opportunity to experience it.

[nostamj]

12. they are posted under a different topic in the WRITING

forum, but, that gets a LOT less traffic and, FWIW, GD is home base for me here. always has been.

[jdj]

24. Dear Nostamj

you really need to make a poem or song out of the experience of Karl Nilsson.

You can google to get his info, I'll paraphrase what he said when he was found in a temple by a Swedish family...his whole family is missing, he is 7 years old..."I was under the water, but somehow I could breath. I was just closing my eyes and moving along with the waves. Then suddenly the flood ended, and I was in another city..."

Of course, he was still in the same place, but the trauma was so great he thought he had been swept into a whole other city. Thanks for the works of art, it does help somehow.

[nostamj]

25. there are SO many stories

i'm not sure how much my heard can handle (indeed, these have been ways to manage the shock and grief)

there's the woman who had to chose which son to release to the waters

there's the young man who survived the wreck/flooding of the "Queen of the Sea" train wading through drowned children

so many stories.

thank you for the kind words regarding my work. it is appreciated.

the line "a was in another city" is very evocative and... will probably re-surface in another poem soon. thanks again!

[kintaro]

11. these images?

http://www.tagesschau.de/styles/container/image/style_images_default/0,,OID3933330,00.jpg
http://www.tagesschau.de/styles/container/image/style_images_default/0,,OID3933360,00.jpg

[donheld]

13. NYTimes international page right side

has a link to some photos everyone should see. too hard to post a link.

[nostamj]

14. NYT slideshow link

Indonesian Muslims prayed for the victims of deadly tsunami in Aceh, the region on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia's largest island.

SLIDESHOW/Indonesia

[lostnfound]

20. OMG. What amazing pictures.

It occurs to me that there will probably be bodies washing up on shore for days if not weeks.

[nostamj]

15. yes! the devastation is just unimaginable

ALL the boats are gone. everything seems to be gone.

[nostamj]

16. .

[nostamj]

17. it was dumb to post this

on New Year's Eve...

[idiosyncratic]

18. No, some of us saw it. And we appreciated it.

[flygal]

19. I liked it ~ peace ~

[mdmc]

21. I thought it was toons...

... :kick:

[nostamj]

22. toons will always have "TOONs"

in the subject line. promise.

[nostamj]

23. ~peace~ would be a very nice thing indeed...

but under *, I'm not very hopeful.

he *could* have shown genuine LEADERSHIP in this disaster. but, he has only responded to shame and personal insult to do anything.

i don't believe he cares. i am sure he cares more about how HE is perceived than about addressing the humanitarian disaster before him.