Competition

Highly Commended

Nature Versus Man
by Ellis Campbell
Dubbo, NSW

The feats of man are many, be it medicine or sport -
explorer, engineer - a scientist or astronaut.
A ship that weighs one hundred thousand tonnes will surely float
as simply as a bark canoe or flimsy wooden boat.

Gigantic planes in thousands thunder through an azure sky,
more swiftly than the fastest bird could ever wish to fly.
We build computers cleverer than man has ever been -
these calculate so swiftly, though they’re just a dumb machine!

We transmit coloured pictures instantly across the world -
an image of perfection through a satellite is hurled.
The cleverness of man exceeds a sphere beyond belief -
he conquers every challenge, any hurdle only brief

A rumbling furnace once disturbed unleashed a wrath immense -
a monster roused from slumber that no power might condense.
An old volcano’s fierce eruption spewed its smoking ash
into an atmosphere alight with its gigantic flash.

A billowed cloud of black smoke spuming, fouled the Iceland sky
a sullen, seething brimstone’s cauldron, breathing fumes on high.
A molten lava’s lurid staining, streaming uncontrolled -
a smouldered pumice ever writhing from its depths untold.

A thousand planes were grounded, all across the universe -
a million people waiting for this smog cloud to disperse.
Beneath a rare pollution swamped where danger filled the sky -
no engine could combat this air - no plane attempt to fly.

The devastating Queensland floods wrecked towns beyond belief
with loss of life and property that brought unbounded grief.
Astounding force of water, sweeping all before its might,
a nightmare plaguing citizens throughout a sleepless night.

The aftermath of ten years’ drought, such rain astounded all-
they watched with hearts of spreading fear its ever-surging sprawl.
Huge homes and cars, livestock and trucks - the bridges swept away -
a nightmare scene to haunt their dreams forever and a day.

The havoc cyclone Yasi wreaked induced a stark despair -
destroying homes unlimited with heartbreak everywhere.
The howling wind and swirling rain purged through a fearsome night -
its sleepless victims prayed relief would come with morning’s light,

So much destroyed in hopeless waste, a screwed & tangled mess -
that represented years of toil and quality progress.
Along the Queensland coast and inland far the cyclone raged,
but thankfully its grim effect was less than experts gauged.

The Christchurch earthquake followed next - a country swamped by dread
with heartbreak, havoc and despair across New Zealand spread.
This tiny nation terrified by constant smaller quakes
old Mother Nature’s power quashes all it overtakes.

A city rich in old world charm and beauty unsurpassed -
laid low in span of time so swift with implications vast.
Such buildings of magnificence smote down by Nature’s sword -
the beauty of this city’s lure can never be restored.

Disaster of Japan’s tsunami swamped a seething world -
its magnitude a stark display of Nature’s might unfurled.
Such might unleashed by something great, beyond what all expect
progressive people’s heritage by super power wrecked

The loss of life enormous - something hard to comprehend -
this mighty nation ravaged by a force it can’t transcend.
Their nuclear reactors were impaired by its effect -
alarm that spread across the world in mazes indirect.

Great Nature’s fury, once unleashed, decries our plans with scorn -
all we endeavour swept aside as we lament and mourn.
The force of Nature terrifies pathetic little man,
but still he struts with pompous stride to hatch another plan.