After Us

After Us

Connie Wanek

I don't know if we're in the beginning
or in the final stage.
                    -- Tomas Tranströmer

Rain is falling through the roof.
And all that prospered under the sun,
the books that opened in the morning
and closed at night, and all day
turned their pages to the light;

the sketches of boats and strong forearms
and clever faces, and of fields
and barns, and of a bowl of eggs,
and lying across the piano
the silver stick of a flute; everything

invented and imagined,
everything whispered and sung,
all silenced by cold rain.

The sky is the color of gravestones.
The rain tastes like salt, and rises
in the streets like a ruinous tide.
We spoke of millions, of billions of years.
We talked and talked.

Then a drop of rain fell
into the sound hole of the guitar, another
onto the unmade bed. And after us,
the rain will cease or it will go on falling,
even upon itself.

            “After Us” by Connie Wanek, This is the 24^th poem in the website Poetry 180, Created by Billy Collins, an American poet. There are many good literary pieces or poems but this poem really caught my attention. By just reading the title i was able to construct a question in my mind. What can really happen after us? That’s the question constructed in my mind. And me being curious and all clicked the poem “After us” and decided to have a review about this poem.  The title is very interesting and the way the poet made this words is very logical and it makes the poem more interesting because she uses metaphors and imagery. Almost every line in this poem has deeper meanings and that makes it more interesting. This poem is about our life. What will happen after us. Will things be the same after us? Or will something change when we are gone. 

         

            As I was reading the poem I noticed that the writer uses imagery so that the reader can picture the poem. In the first line of the poem the writer talks about the rain. How can it affect on our daily lives. And in the next lines she says about how the rain can turn the light into darkness and those who prosper in the light turn away to find the light they desperately need. I realized that in that paragraph the reader talks about how the rain can help us and how the rain can destroy us. In the second paragraph, the poet writes about an image of a perfect place where there is peace and no one to disturb it. The third paragraph talks about the destruction that a rain can do. How can it silence everything invented and imagined. In the fourth paragraph the poet says that the sky is the color of gravestones which is a metaphor that pictures death. The poet talks about how the rain can destroy things again. After that the poet talked about the past how we talked about it millions of billions of years. The last paragraph talks about the rain again and that it will continue to fall no matter what we do. We can’t stop it

            After reading the poem, I realized that the poem is about our life. And the question in my head a while ago has an answer right now. What really happens after us is the sun will still rise and the rain will still fall and life just continues. The people around us will just move on and continue their lives.  No matter what we have than to them no matter who we are to them life still goes on. They will just mourn for our lost for a while and continue to live their lives to the fullest. But we will never be forgotten we will always be in their hearts and in their minds. Just like a good memory that will never happen or be seen again. Life is an obstacle that never ends. In the poem there are good times and bad. But life still goes on no matter what happens.