THE QUAKE

‘5.5’ by Birgitte Hansen

THE QUAKE

When an earthquake registering 5.5 on the Richter scale struck Newcastle late-morning on December 28^th, 1989, thirteen people were killed and ten thousand buildings were damaged, some irreparably so.

Christ Church Cathedral, overlooking Newcastle, was cracked and its fine transept windows shattered in the quake. One shop in King Street shed its ceramic tile facing, revealing a foundation stone laid ages ago by Sir Earle Page.

After three weeks a Service of Commemoration and Renewal was held in the Cathedral, early in the evening of Friday January 20^th, 1990. Toward the end of the service, threatening thunder clouds began to rain heavily on the city, its homes, damaged shops and streets, some still decorated for Christmas.

CATHEDRAL

Summer evening clouds weep

on the cathedral and its city

the tears we shed at funerals for our dead.

Thunder rolls a deep antiphony

in memory of that momentous noise

of ancient dragon's breath

setting fire to wood long dried

when the quake struck

when walls fell,

clocks stopped

and birdsong died.

Blood of smashed memorial glass

lies on the cathedral floor -

blood of founders, blood of saints,

blood of workers -

our communal grief.

We remember

and touch the scar

of each past private grief.

'Season's Greetings!' hang in unlit shops

on barricaded streets.

The heavy rain lets foundations reappear,

stripped of paint and ceramic gloss,

runnels clear the dust and grit of years:

tears clarify inscriptions.

Yes, we realise

it’s here that we'll rebuild!