1, poem, poetry, – Page 57

OF FOREVER CHANGE

O monstrous substance
truly

by
rule of thumb
you end in
-um

are ever-expandimg
our poor periodic table

scare the life out of me
when you
get tetchy, too
much drawn
into yourself
go fissile

can blow us to bits and
yet, and yet
where
would we be
without you

clinging to ice and cold rock
nothing down at
deep mine depth
firing
up the magma

giving us a landscape that’s
just too
dynamic,
fire, earth,
air, water

stuff beyond the spectrum
so I
can see right through you

see if
the heart is right
the cells behaving

fusion separation what
was it
Heraclitus said

about these atoms
agents of
forever
change

architects of danger, sadness,
all the power in huge rejoicing

O monstrous substance
so much to fear, such
a great
debt we owe

might have to pay

God took Job
to the heart
of a star

thrust him deep
into that thermonuclear fire

explained the nature of
such mountainous energy
producing
the rich elements
without which
no life

and Job lost
in awe
struck down
in wonder

though
this was far from the point
so far
from
the point

to you or I
enmeshed in
the toul and hardship of
out working lives

and yet
living, breathing
examples we
are here told
of all
that is wondrous
in divine création

what royal devil here
in the meticulous detail?

from a to h and
one to eight

get your computation
one square wrong and
what you
calculated plain
sailing takes you
through
the logic of
a Scylla and Charibdis

on your hero’s
doomed journey across
this unforgiving board

every distinction absolute
here, across the board

and this is the wine-
dark sea the poet imagined

never saw
except as the thousand
ship keels ploughed their
way through
its waves

to save Helen
from disaster in the arms
of Paris and that
wily Odysseus might
outwit the cyclops

time and time again
manouvre his way
past god
and demon

on his way
back to
Ithaca

resting place
of all story
I am told