Did I just write poetry?

When thoughts in my head turn into a poem

I live in the beautiful San Francisco bay area. And we just had a grueling last few months of summer. In fact, it is the most devastating August and September in all the years I have lived here.

Not only is our Covid-19 numbers up, placing us in the strictest social distancing rules, where only a few businesses are allowed to operate. But we also in the midst of the scariest fire season.

The climate is in the high 90 degrees Fahrenheit. And by mid-August, we experience a weather anomaly — raging thunderstorms that light up the Bay Area sky. There are approximately 12,000 lightning strikes late evening to the early hours of 4 a.m. It is the perfect oxymoron since it is both scary and spectacular to see.

This rare weather occurrence happens when the temperature of a region is very hot and there are remnants of a typhoon coming in. The result is a dry thunderstorm.

And this is what starts the nightmare of fires.

The lightning sparks affect several areas and ignite a widespread fire in nearly every county of Northern California. In addition, we see another scary weather deviation in the form of a fire tornado. The devastations rage on for weeks.

When there seems to be progress on fighting the fires, another strange event occurs. On September 9, 2020, Wednesday, I wake up and my surroundings have the orange color haze all over.

Seeing this apocalyptic San Francisco, in addition to the anxiety build-up from the previous anomalies, just pushed my feelings on the edge. I am completely disheartened.

If I know there are matters I cannot control and yet I still feel the stress, I turn to my writing.

At first, I am attempting to narrate a story about my distress. But surprisingly, the words that come out of my keyboard and project onto the computer screen is a poem.

I have not written a poem since the year 2006. So imagine my surprise when I begin at 9 p.m. and I am done in fifteen minutes. How this poem materializes leaves me completely dumbfounded.

If you are curious to read what the words were in my head that allows me to put together this ‘When the Sky turned Crimson’ poem, please click below and have a read.