THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling, yer Gonzo Grande Fromage, writes:

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Thom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth and Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied within seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not?"

LITERARY ASPECTS OF CORONAVIRUS

(Camus' LA PESTE)

I AM WASHING MY HANDS MORE THAN LADY McBETH

I cast my mind back further than the epi-/pandemics of our time

pre-Flu,AIDS,EBOLA,SARS,MERS etc -every viral infection /bubonic plague

reminding us of the Plague of Galen ,Plague of Athens,Great Plague of London/Milan

The Plague of Justinian,The Moscow Plague,all the American Plagues-and The Black Death !

We are not the first to write about such recurring events-from Boccaccio's "THE DECAMERON "of 1353A.D

to Daniel Defoe's"A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR"of 1722.From Mary Shelley's THE LAST MAN of 1826

to Poe's THE MASQUE IF THE RED DEATH of 1842.You remember P D James THE CHILDREN OF MEN,

Stephen King's THE STAND,Michael Crichton's THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN..

Herman Hesse's NARCISSUS &GOLDMUND,John Le Carre's THE CONSTANT GARDENER,

Alessandro Manzoni's THE BETROTHED,Jose Saramago's BLINDNESS..

Go back to Jack London's THE SCARLET PLAGUE,Ken Follett's WHITEOUT-

Flash forward to Jim Crace's THE PESTHOUSE-and Margaret Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE..

Many more titles deal with plagues and pandemics-SICK,THE ATLANTIS CAVE,A BEAUTIFUL POISON,

I AM LEGEND,PANDEMIC-then we come to filmed adaptations-CONTAGION,VIRUS,OUTBREAK,

ZOMBIELAND,NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD-all those STAR TREK episodes

Nothing new about contagion.Nor its world spread.Nor its return in mutant forms.

There is as yet no vaccine.Just wash your hands and touch no one.

THE END is just beginning.