When Disasters do Report

When I hear report of disasters struck,

Of Hurricanes wreaking havoc o’erseas,

Of forest fires causing great devastation,

Of tsunamis laying waste to poor places;

When I hear of earthquakes crippling far lands,

And volcanoes over villages spilling,

When I hear the news of such tragedies,

And the tally of all the casualties,

I do wonder: were they by God’s own willing?

Since I can’t, in faith, think these His commands,

I put it to nature, such tragic cases,

Or think them of the devil’s operation,

Ill spirits working to wreckful degrees;

Or else I surmise: what sad, what bad, luck.

A sonnet a wrote a long time ago with a unique rhyme scheme abcdefggfedcba, perhaps it might be called a reflected rhyme sonnet, or inverse scheme? I’m not convinced it works very well however, and the meter is not particularly splendid, as perhaps a sonnet might demand.