First response to my 3/11/11 e-mail about the tsunami reaching the Pacific Coast on Friday, March 11, 2011, was from Vera-Jane Goodin Schultz, co-founder of the Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition. V-J and her husband John live near his mother, a Japanese war bride now nearing age 90, who has been here since the late 1940s.
“Hi--Glad to hear you are okay and the waves aren't so big there . . . Japan--what can one say? So beyond sad. . . I think John's mom must have sensed something, with all the little almost-emergency-room visits this week. I can't remember which day it was this week, but John and I looked at each other and agreed 'weird day'. It seemed I could get nothing done yesterday and the day before. . .” V-J., Springfield, Mo.
Excerpts follow from other responses by poets and friends from Missouri, opening with webmaster Al Baker’s comments. Others’ initials are used to protect their privacy.
“. . . I first heard about the earthquake and effects about noon. . . I can't say that I had any precognitive feelings before the quake. . . I felt a great anxiety after I heard about the quake, but could not identify any feelings before, except a disinterest in what I was doing around here and an urgency to pack up everything and head to the woods for a week or so, but that is not an uncommon feeling when dealing with the position I have.” Al Baker, Springfield, Mo.
“March 12, 2011 . . . This may not have significance, but since the mid 80s I have had an unexplainable (by doctors) random happening. A sudden strong feeling of depression will hit me and within about 20 seconds I get a powerful hot flash that lasts a half minute or so. There is no trigger situation, and six months can go by without any. This past week I have had them again, more frequently yesterday and today, which is post-earthquake, but the trauma and grief are still present. D. L., Keewatin, Minnesota
(Editor’s Response: Substitute “freezing feet” for “hot flash” and you’ve just described me during the same time period. WSP)
“Interesting! I went to work Wednesday and we had 2 people out due to ‘sickness’. I went home before 9:30 a.m. with sickness, and another from work went home that day with a migraine. I missed Thursday at work and went in on Friday.
“My ‘sickness’ was aches and pains and slight ‘out of sorts’ feeling (it started with nausea). I told someone I felt like a ‘space cadet’. It was somewhat better Thursday night, as I really felt something lift off of me as I started singing words to music I heard earlier in the week and forgot about on Wednesday when my weird feelings set in.
“On Friday, I went back to work, but it was a crazy day. I told everyone a sort of made up reason, but knew it was probably more real than my coworkers realized. I told everyone (at work) the earthquake changed the earth’s vibrations and our customers were feeling it. We were feeling it.
“This morning (Sat., 3/12/11) I got up feeling great, but my ‘strange’ feeling from earlier this week came back like a ‘wave’ this morning. I have not been able to get anything done all day. It is beautiful here and I wanted to work in the yard. But as I say this, I realize that I don't hear my neighbors and it is really quiet outside except for the birds. Interesting since it is really warm and sunny. Nobody is doing anything.
“I don't think I am making too much of this. But it really doesn't feel that good. Like you, I want to get rid of whatever is causing the fog in my head.. . It is also strange that you sent this email. I thought of you when all this happened, and not because you are in California. Don't really know why. . . J.M., Springfield, Mo.
“. . . I don't know that I slept last night. If so, it was off and on. I got up at 4 a.m. and turned on the news and saw the earthquake and heard about Hawaii and the US West Coast. The devastation is horrendous. I wonder if they will ever recover. I am afraid planet Earth is going to destroy itself sooner than expected. We've had nothing but earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, snows, drought, etc. for several years now.. . I just wonder if it is apocalypse now . . . L.A.R., Springfield, Mo.
This Arkansas poet, who doesn’t follow the news, claims no signs attributable to the quakes in Japan or Christ Church,New Zealand two weeks earlier.
“. . . I felt nothing and didn't know about the quake until my niece told me. I don't watch any news because it is all bad and I prefer to think about peace. We had a few quakes a couple weeks back and I thought it was just a high wind. Here, we know the quakes are manmade with the oil pumping. . . “ E. B., Cave City, Ark.
From the southeast coastline came this e-mail from attorney/brain researcher A. Irving Rosenberg, winner of a Golden Pen Award and co-partner with me in producing a series of automatic writing works entitled “Dialogues with Logos.”
“The details of your ‘Tsunami’ experience were unusual and rather frankly revealing of your remarkable ‘talents’ of which I am strongly aware.” A. Irving Rosenberg, Delray Beach, Fla.
Meanwhile, in western high country, a poet reports her unforgettable, inexplicable experience: “Wow, Amy! Thank you so much for sending this. I also felt extremely emotional for the past couple of days, as well as dull & dizzy. Unbelievable! I do think we are all connected and pick up on events psychically or emotionally right before they happen. After the tsunami hit, I said to myself ‘no wonder I have been feeling so unbelievably awful all day.’ There was no external reason for it. . . “ C. C., Colorado Springs, Colo.
Along the western coastline, poets in Central Coast communities near Santa Cruz, where $18 million of tsunami-related damage occurred, responded:
“I had a strange week myself. At one point my body felt like it was trembling and I think that was when the earthquake hit Japan. I thought ‘earthquake’ and looked to see if the light fixture was moving but it was not, so I thought maybe it is just my body getting old. All very strange because, like you, I did not feel particularly well earlier in the week.” N.J., Pacific Grove, Calif.
“Yes, I had anxiety dreams last night (for no reason in my personal life) and at 6:15 a.m. a VERY LOUD voice on my phone began speaking about ‘Do not go into the water.’ Huh? Here in Pacific Grove the road along Monterey Bay was closed. Still, people I saw on The News went out to Lovers Point ‘to look’ . . . You are a voice for Poetry. Thank you for reaching out. . . Amicus poeticae,” N. W., Pacific Grove, Calif.
“Wonderful timing. . . just the news I needed. . . being flat out with the flu and now hearing about a tsunami. . . historically (hysterically) for me that is how I roll with the earth changes. . . I would love to take one of your workshops. . . As for dentists drilling without anesthesia, . . . warn them in case of pain you bite back.” L. H., Watsonville, Calif.
And from Southern California’s beach communities we received this response from a sensitive poet whose non-poetic spouse was not spared the empathetic reaction to the tremors that traveled around the world.
Thank you for this, Amy, I was out of sorts all day yesterday, and though (he is) not a poet, so was my husband. M. S., Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Across the country on the east coast, this poet mused more about the Muse than the tsunami.
“How strange this planet is and how interesting that we sense things even without knowing the ‘why’. Poems happen sometimes without warning--in the car sometimes for me-- and I have to stop to jot something down. It takes me hours to write and rewrite, so I am not one of those gifted poets who compose in one instantaneous sitting. I'm doing lots of other writing at this time, historical factual stuff as well as continuing to quilt. so hopefully the muse will again reveal herself more frequently.” N.G.S., Vineland, N.J.
About ¾ of e-mails I get in response to News Flashes address me as Amy, although I always sign off as Wanda Sue Parrott. One poet who knows the secret about Amy Kitchener’s true identity lives in Texas. She sent this e-mail about a vision and comments I shared privately, but did not include in the mass e-blast to which the above poets responded. They are revealed here in hope others may be inspired to serve as Diploets—Diplomatic Poets in service to the Greater Muse.
“I agree that collective energy from around the world, exuding concern and caring for the thousands in peril, focused positive energy towards Japan. You are right in wishing to encourage the world to utilize that power to focus positively towards the Middle East and its people. We need to end the unrest and genocide there, too.
“Your vision of a chunk of Mother Earth planning to vacation in another part of the galaxy is interesting. The earth shifted its axis by 4+ degress last year. Who knew????
“Regretfully, that doesn't inspire me to be a better person as much as I am inspired to seek solace in a pint of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream before The End. Of course, a little brandy sauce on top of the Blue Bell could be therapeutic. . .
“ Perhaps Blue Bell and a little brandy sauce would help the Middle East find something to collectively LOVE instead of hate. . . Too bad, I don't wanna share.” J.I.M., Deep in the Heart of Texas