Kevin’s Meandering Thoughts | Poems: Mill River Flood Commemoration

All month, I’ve been writing and sharing a sequence of poems impressed by historic doc “pins” (data posters positioned at varied factors alongside the way in which) which were positioned to commemorate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Mill River Flood right here the place I stay in Western Massachusetts. My preliminary plan was to put in writing a poem for each pin however there have been simply too many pins (70+) however I nonetheless used fairly a couple of of the pins from the StoryMap venture that digitally renders the story of the flood.

My purpose was to know the story of the flood on one other stage by participating with the historic pins as texts. I already had information of the flood and it devastating affect on the village the place I stay (many individuals died — the dam was defective — the wealthy mill house owners by no means needed to pay the value for reducing corners).

You possibly can both learn my poems ahead (following the pins, which adopted the waters because the dam broke and the river surged ahead) or learn them in reverse (utilizing the hashtag I created to trace the poems) to trace the affect of the flood from downriver, upward.

This lovely art work by my neighbor – Heidi Stevens — was featured as a part of a commemoration ceremony we had this month, the place the names of all victims of the flood have been learn aloud, in order that we — the group — wouldn’t neglect them. Heidi used discovered river glass for her work. We nonetheless discover glass, pottery, buttons and different supplies within the river, an echo of the previous within the type of misplaced objects.

Peace (flows ahead),
Kevin