There are always warning signs when change is coming, but there’s never a way to stop the change. Adrienne Rich explores this idea of knowledge without power in her poem, “Storm Warnings” as the narrator prepares herself and her home to withstand a storm. As I read this poem, I recognized the narrator’s sense of powerlessness but determination to press on in the face of adversity as something I have seen in the eyes of New Orleanians since August 29th, 2005. Our city was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and sometimes I think that maybe if we had seen it coming earlier or closed that extra shutter it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the storm was coming no matter what anyone did and all we could do when it came was get out or get ready.
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When I was in second grade I saw on TV the city I was going back to and my parents reminded me that it would look a little different than how we left it. But it didn’t matter how much I knew about what was coming, the change was done, the storm had come. “Clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter” what they tell us (17). They are simply a window through which we can predict change, not a levee with which we can prevent change. It is the intersection between prediction and prevention that makes the master of nature, but all I had were the TVs and pictures telling me what I would find when I got home. The most significant line in this poem to me was “Time in the hand is not control of time” (18). It is such a humbling idea that I wish I had known in 2005 and I wish New Orleans had known in 2005. We may be aware of the passage of time or the approach of a hurricane, but that doesn’t mean we have any power to change or stop them. It only makes us aware. As Rich put it, when the storm comes all we have power over is to “close the shutters” (21). It seems like an impossibly weak defense against the strength of nature, but it’s what we
You can’t …show more content…
When I was in second grade I saw on TV the city I was going back to and my parents reminded me that it would look a little different than how we left it. But it didn’t matter how much I knew about what was coming, the change was done, the storm had come. “Clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter” what they tell us (17). They are simply a window through which we can predict change, not a levee with which we can prevent change. It is the intersection between prediction and prevention that makes the master of nature, but all I had were the TVs and pictures telling me what I would find when I got home. The most significant line in this poem to me was “Time in the hand is not control of time” (18). It is such a humbling idea that I wish I had known in 2005 and I wish New Orleans had known in 2005. We may be aware of the passage of time or the approach of a hurricane, but that doesn’t mean we have any power to change or stop them. It only makes us aware. As Rich put it, when the storm comes all we have power over is to “close the shutters” (21). It seems like an impossibly weak defense against the strength of nature, but it’s what we