No Ordinary Sun

I passed some wild ideas by my son today.  I often do.

Our discussion honed in on the atomic testing that took place in the Pacific during the second half of the recent century.  He quoted a line from a poem he has been studying at school & tucked inside it were three words: -

'the monstrous sun'

After my recent sideways look at the sun, I was intrigued.

I read the poem No Ordinary Sun - for me it sparkled ideas from past & current research.

I think it can be very powerful to turn 

our worlds, 

our words, 

our history, 

our selves 

& our knowledge 

upside down for a little while.

You just never know what might fall out.

The following poem by Hone Tuwhare, might be talking of a tree that has felt the effects of nuclear testing.

But perhaps it is not.

It might be talking about your life.

Or mine.

Or it might be making a humanitarian offering -  reminding us to look again...

... at what we have worshipped or still are worshipping.

To check carefully at what price admission is charged...

... & to remember that we can lower our arms &
get up off our knees

... if we choose.

Tree let your arms fall:

raise them not sharply in supplication

to the bright enhaloed cloud.

Let your arms lack toughness and

resilience for this is no mere axe

to blunt nor fire to smother.

Your sap shall not rise again

to the moon’s pull.

No more incline a deferential head

to the wind’s talk, or stir
to the tickle of coursing rain.

Your former shagginess shall not be

wreathed with the delightful flight

of birds nor shield

nor cool the ardour of unheeding

lovers from the monstrous sun.

Tree let your naked arms fall

nor extend vain entreaties to the radiant ball.

This is no gallant monsoon’s flash,

no dashing trade wind’s blast.

The fading green of your magic

emanations shall not make pure again

these polluted skies . . . for this

is no ordinary sun.

O tree

in the shadowless mountains

the white plains and

the drab sea floor

your end at last is written...

... Or then again, do we take hold of a mighty pen & claim the right to right our own ending-slash-beginnings.