Middle school student shares a poem about Helene’s impact on the RAD

A few weeks after Tropical Storm Helene hit, Xpress received an email from local resident Elizabeth Lee Steere, who shared the poem “A Very Rad Place,” written by her son, Alexander Steere. The poem, included below, depicts the storm’s devastation to the River Arts District. Alexander is a seventh grader at Francine Delany New School.

Additional poems about Helene

In addition to Alexander Steere‘s poem, Xpress received two additional submissions.

The first piece, which is untitled, was written by Jeannie Mckenzie of Weaverville. In her email to Xpress, she noted, “I wrote this poem about grief, and I wanted to share it because I feel like it is an important part of the emotional soup we are navigating and I found that once I was really able to express my grief, I had much more energy for the joy of life.”

Untitled

This grief wells up in my heart as fast as a river,
defying its banks and washing away everything in sight.
This grief crashes blindly in jagged lightning strikes,
tearing apart houses and splitting trees.
This grief weighs as much as a landslide of rubble that closes highways, uproots houses, breaks dams, annihilates villages.
This grief forgets that there is anything except tears
and pounds down in torrents of rain.
Until all it has left is dry heaving sobs that fell forests
and knock trees onto houses.
This grief shakes loose everything that has served its time
and no longer cares to hold on.
This grief changes the course of rivers forever
as it cries uncontrollable tears of letting go.
This griefs knows that it just needs to be felt. This grief is collective grief. Mama Gaia’s grief.
And she won’t settle for anything less than a major rearrangement of the furniture.
Nothing less than mandatory release of all plans, as she spins us into the blind trust of adaptation.
Together, we are crying out all of the tears as the contractions grow stronger, pushing out my grief, your grief, Gaia’s grief.
Together we are being reshaped and reformed,
rebirthed into the kintsugi of our ineffable oneness.

The second poem arrives courtesy of Swannanoa resident Jerry Nelms. In his email to Xpress, Nelms says he wrote “The Crisis Chronicles” a few days after the storm at 2 a.m., “using flashlight, of course.”

The Crisis Chronicles

born from a long sleepless night
When paradise breaks up and
hell rains down.
When what is taken for granted is
taken away.

When sunlight reveals your pain and
night reveals your fears.

When batteries are real and
plug-ins are myths.

When a light switch is a dark trick and
a faucet yawns into your empty glass.

When a clean body is a dream and
clean teeth rob the water you drink.

When your home is up the river and
your comfort is down the drain.

When you take care of yourself so
you can take care of others.

When strangers become neighbors and
neighbors become friends.

When helping hands lift
beleaguered lands.

All the while you know …

This too shall pass
this too shall pass
as did all those yesterdays,
all those yesterdays,
those yesterdays.

Editor’s note: While Xpress appreciates readers submitting poems, space limits how many of these works we can publish.

Xpress recently spoke with the young poet about his piece and his love for the RAD.

A Very Rad Place

by Alexander Steere

Every day I’m very glad
That I live so close to the RAD.

And every morning on a school day
The River Arts District is on the way.

There’s creative graffiti art everywhere
On the sides of many buildings.
And you might even see a bear
Or at least some bears in paintings.

There are warm quesadillas in White Duck Taco,
There’s gelato at Sugar and Snow.
There’s lots of great places in Asheville to go,
But this is the coolest place I know.

Until …

The French Broad River started to rise,
And people there couldn’t believe their eyes,

As the road was torn away from the ground,
And random debris was flying around,

As all of the buildings collapsed with a crash.
The River Arts District was covered in trash.

And every morning on a school day
What once was the RAD is on the way.

There’s ruined furniture everywhere
And there aren’t as many buildings.
And everything looks so bad over there
That even looking at it stings.

There’s nothing left in White Duck Taco,
There’s nothing in Sugar and Snow.
And even though the storm has passed
It’ll never look like it was in the past.

And every day I’m very sad
That the hurricane was this bad.

Xpress: Do you write poetry often or was “A Very Rad Place” your first poem?

Steere: I don’t write poetry often, but I do like writing stories. This poem was part of a project in school, and I was working on a poem about Asheville before the hurricane. But when we got back to school, I decided to change it.

How did writing the poem help you process the storm’s destruction?

I think it helped, and I also think it’s something worth writing about.

Do you have a favorite spot in the RAD? What makes it special to you?

I really like Odyssey ClayWorks because I made clay figurines and claymation there. I also really like the art in the RAD.

I hear you turned 13 the week of the storm. Happy belated birthday! Were you able to celebrate? What did you do?

Thanks! I had my birthday party at the Retrocade, and luckily it was before the storm.

Do you mind me asking how you and your friends are doing? Do you all discuss the storm much? If so, what have the conversations been like?

My friends are doing all right. We all have our own stories about what it was like during the hurricane, but other than that things are pretty normal.

What do you hope people who read your poem take away from it?

I just hope that it accurately depicts what it’s like living in Asheville right now.

Middle school student shares a poem about Helene’s impact on the RAD

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