{"id":607,"date":"2019-10-18T01:52:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T01:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/?p=607"},"modified":"2019-10-23T02:59:18","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T02:59:18","slug":"coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

A poem I wrote 30 years ago, in the days following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.<\/p>\n

Coverage<\/b>
\nOakland, October 17-19, 1989<\/p>\n

I.<\/p>\n

When structures already
\nimprobably huge simply<\/span>
\nbreak like some toy<\/span><\/p>\n

they suddenly loom
\nlike giants absurd<\/span>
\non the horizon<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

a fifty foot section<\/i>
\nof the Bay Bridge<\/i><\/span>
\nerector set tilt<\/span><\/p>\n

like a garage door<\/i>
\nsaid one witness closing<\/span>
\non eastbound traffic<\/span><\/p>\n

on the lower deck
\nthe ground level shots<\/span>
\nof the upper deck<\/span><\/p>\n

of the Cypress section of
\nthe Nimitz<\/span>
\na mile to a mile and a quarter<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

stretch of freeway<\/i>
\ncollapsed onto the lower<\/span>
\nslabs\u00a0some 600 tons<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

with no right to be
\nso impossible to lift<\/span>
\nto make survival<\/span><\/p>\n

so unlikely<\/p>\n

II.<\/p>\n

My friend Steve
\nemerged from the ground floor<\/span>
\nstairwell of<\/span><\/p>\n

the Mills Building downtown
\njoking successfully<\/span>
\nWe\u2019re the only survivors<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

from the tenth floor<\/i>
\nand went off<\/span>
\nto catch the bus home<\/span><\/p>\n

at Candlestick the World Series
\nthe Giants down<\/span>
\ntwo games to none<\/span><\/p>\n

the crowd cheered
\ninitially<\/span>
\nI jumped up from<\/span><\/p>\n

my castered chair
\nto better experience<\/span>
\nthe full effect<\/span><\/p>\n

walked barefoot across
\nthe room looking around<\/span>
\nat what might topple<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

later
\nwatching the coverage<\/span>
\nthe power of TV<\/span><\/p>\n

to provide desired information
\nimages like the power<\/span>
\nof the federal government<\/span><\/p>\n

to provide relief which is to say
\nmoney but what<\/span>
\nthen do you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

phoned my parents
\ncalled around and<\/span>
\nworried about Steve<\/span><\/p>\n

who had not
\nyet made it home<\/p>\n

III.<\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

The Marina district
\nof San Francisco built<\/span>
\npoetically enough<\/span><\/p>\n

on landfill
\nthe hardest hit<\/span>
\nproviding most of the<\/span><\/p>\n

standard earthquake footage
\nfire and in<\/span>
\nthe dawn rubble<\/span><\/p>\n

houses fallen
\ninto one another residents<\/span>
\nand their possessions<\/span><\/p>\n

gathered into
\nthe streets and<\/span>
\nthe sightseers Pete Wilson<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

the Channel 7 anchor had to
\nbecome stern<\/span>
\nyou\u2019re only getting in the way<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

of everything we need to<\/i>
\nbe doing there<\/i>\u00a0and<\/span>
\nhave the decency<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

to stay away<\/i>
\nbut in an unrelated segment\u00a0people<\/i><\/span>
\nare really pulling together<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Pete
\nneither panache nor nobility<\/span>
\nnor gross insensitivity<\/span><\/p>\n

those who could help
\ndid so<\/span>
\nthose with opportunity<\/span><\/p>\n

one Charles Schwab employee
\nin a tie and improvised<\/span>
\nI Survived the Big One<\/i>\u00a0cap<\/span><\/p>\n

strolled collecting
\nsuitable fragments others<\/span>
\none lady<\/span><\/p>\n

dispossessed\u00a0baked<\/i>
\nin the sun for two hours waiting<\/i><\/span>
\nfor Mayor Agnos to speak but<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

the shelter volunteers<\/i>
\nhave been wonderful to us<\/i><\/span>
\nthose called<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

to heroism perhaps
\nachieved that end<\/span>
\nwhich depended<\/span><\/p>\n

on where you were
\nwhich next Tuesday will be<\/span>
\naccording to<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Fay Vincent the Commissioner of Baseball<\/i>
\nCandlestick again<\/span>
\nperhaps<\/span><\/p>\n

just a little nervous
\nor forgetful<\/span>
\nor as one newscaster<\/span><\/p>\n

on the Marina refugees
\nthese people<\/i><\/span>
\nhave been denied the opportunity<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

to surround themselves<\/i>
\nwith themselves<\/i><\/p>\n

IV.<\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

PDS<\/a> forgive
\nmy use again<\/span>
\nof your three line<\/span><\/p>\n

stanza
\nand I needed your way<\/span>
\nof applying a structure<\/span><\/p>\n

to areas too vast
\nto be seen wholly<\/span>
\nexcept by telecopter<\/span><\/p>\n

the artificial topology
\nof downtown<\/span>
\nthe delineating connecting<\/span><\/p>\n

lines of freeways and bridges
\nand the prone<\/span>
\nruin of the Nimitz<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

public domain photo, U.S. Geological Survey<\/p><\/div>\n

the faint patterns of streets
\namong houses we build<\/span>
\nover the surface<\/span><\/p>\n

of this world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A poem I wrote 30 years ago, in the days following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Coverage Oakland, October 17-19, 1989<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/coverage.jpg?fit=640%2C510&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}