Art and LiteratureCulturePoetry

And then the crowd roars

And then the crowd roars

And then the crowd roars–
but why are they roaring?
What are they roaring for?

When you repeat a word
like roaring several times
it starts to come undone inside

your head. It turns
inside out, or upside down
and lurches side to side

without explanation.
Before you can speak
or look, the whole thing’s

over. Like conviction
meaning proves
a co-dependent thing.

The shape of the sound
the shape of the sense:
one dull breaker after

another, foaming white
the fell roar gonging
becoming a ringing

even the singing of birds
reduced to something
that might have been

that wasn’t, or isn’t anymore.
The seething narrows
near the shore go on roaring.

Photo credit

Daniel Hyland

Daniel Hyland

Daniel is a Catholic writer and voice artist living in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife and daughter. He believes in the power of beauty in life, nature and art as a tool of evangelism, and seeks to follow Christ through study, work and prayer. His favorite book of the Bible is the Song of Songs because of the stunning intimacy it presents both with regard to the sacrament of marriage and the marital union with God to which every soul is called in Christ. He is the proud owner of a small collection of facial hair, charitably termed a mustache.

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