The rain it rains

I can't stop watching the images of the Queensland floods.  As well as being sad and strange, it's astonishing to see a familiar landscape completely transfigured by water. Many of the photos look serene, but under the surface there has been destruction. After these extraordinary waters recede, there will be much to do.

It's a cliche but it's undeniably true about Australians that we stare down adversity and face devastation on this scale with an unflinching pragmatism. The images of kids paddling while adults shoulder eskies, sofas, dogs and bikes through chest-high water are heartening.

I like this poem “Floods” by Rudyard Kipling because of the truth of its observation: “what is weak will surely go, / And what is strong must prove it so.” Also the hopefulness of the ending. The floods are destructive now, but they do end a twenty-year drought and promise better years to come for our rivers and fields.

The rain it rains without a stay
In the hills above us, in the hills;
And presently the floods break way
Whose strength is in the hills.
The trees they suck from every cloud,
The valley brooks they roar aloud--
Bank-high for the lowlands, lowlands,
Lowlands under the hills!

The first wood down is sere and small,
From the hills, the brishings off the hills;
And then come by the bats and all
We cut last year in the hills;
And then the roots we tried to cleave
But found too tough and had to leave--
Polting through the lowlands, lowlands,
Lowlands under the hills!

The eye shall look, the ear shall hark
To the hills, the doings in the hills,
And rivers mating in the dark
With tokens from the hills.
Now what is weak will surely go,
And what is strong must prove it so.
Stand fast in the lowlands, lowlands,
Lowlands under the hills!

The floods they shall not be afraid--
Nor the hills above 'em, nor the hills--
Of any fence which man has made
Betwixt him and the hills.
The waters shall not reckon twice
For any work of man's device,
But bid it down to the lowlands, lowlands,
Lowlands under the hills!

The floods shall sweep corruption clean--
By the hills, the blessing of the hills--
That more the meadows may be green
New-amended from the hills.
The crops and cattle shall increase,
Nor little children shall not cease--
Go--plough the lowlands, lowlands,
Lowlands under the hills!