The Leonids

My Year  12s and I just got to the end of Hamlet, extraordinarily wonderful – as always! Images of such power and sorrow in the final act. And reading Hamlet’s words about defying augury in November just makes one think of the Leonids (doesn’t it?) and the power humans have so often given the stars over their lives – whether in the portentous flight of comets, the more mundane weekly/monthly astrology or the simple small promises of trust in divine providence. None of it very reliable, of course, but fruitful – perhaps.

Leonids

… the wandering stars … stand
like wonder-wounded hearers

Hamlet V i

 

earlier nightfall

rubs out

the differences of place

makes all

familiar dark

<>

Earth in measured dance

towards the Kuiper Belt again

erases years

until the shooting light

once more spills belief

in providence

smaller than the portents

of 906, 1630, 1833

but still as radiant

and full of seeming promise

inviting wishes

<>

the shower ends

and heaven hung with black

is vast and space again

where cast off

rocks and dust and ice

-          indifferent wake of passing comets    -

flare briefly

into wonder

<>

till the wounds

of time and space

return

 

 

 

~ by Reason plays no part on November 14, 2010.