Poem Review: The Sun — Muse and Totem
Sun is the universal life giver and the father of living beings. If Sun is the Father, our planet Earth is our mother. Between them, we were conjured and conceived, and over a period, we have grown to understand that both are givers of life, and nourish our souls.
Sun is the brightest star in our skies, and holds answers to our past, present and future. Poets and novelists have aspired to include the Sun in their creative works and inspired by its many attributes.
Both in psychological and literal sense, both metaphorically and literally, sun seeps into our lives — our days are defined by its presence and absence.
“They can be like the sun, words.
They can do for the heart what light can for a field.”
― St. John of the Cross, The Poems of St. John of the Cross
Given the tough last two years, we need a great dose of light and warmth.
Our poetry reviews of 2022 starts with us exploring two interesting poems about ‘The Sun’. ‘The Daily Sun’ from Shwetahitesh and ‘The Sun: Two liners’ from Vineet Raj Kapoor, illuminate our lives and souls, much like the Sun itself.
Poem 1: The Daily Sun
You come daily
Unnoticed and silent
But it’s when you leave
Not before, playing with me
Soaking me in your warmth
Leaving the blush and rosiness
In the deep blue swath~Shweta Hitesh Joshi
Commentary on Poem 1:
I wish this poem was longer, but that is Shweta for you. The thought is the poem, and you need to embrace the thought, and then travel with it. The second thought this poem leaves me with is that poems of nature can be contemplative as well.
You come daily
Unnoticed and silent
Hide and seek? Is that the game the sun plays with the poet? Surreptitious entry. The poet acknowledges it, yet it sounds like an accuse. Or is it just a statement of fact?
I see an oxymoron. She observes ‘you come daily’, yet she says the sun is ‘unnoticed’.
But it’s when you leave
Not before…
Since the sun is around, there is comfort. Do you remember the presence of that person, whose mere presence would make you comfortable? So, the oxymoron is explained indirectly here.
What matters to the poet is when the sun leaves. Neither the poet nor the sun is bothered to engage with each other during the day, but just about sunset, the poet gets to the sun, just not before.
… playing with me
Soaking me in your warmth
At the time of the sunset, the rays of the sun, slanting yet seductive, plays with the poet’s imagination. The bright white is gone, instead, orange and yellow, purple and violet — the magical colors unleash before the eyes of the poet.
The feeling of such a tantalizing play invokes an exuberant warmth in the poet’s heart. Note that the day’s warmth, when the sun was hotter did not mean anything to the poet, yet the evening dance of the sun ‘soaks her in his warmth’.
Leaving the blush and rosiness
In the deep blue swath
This is a momentary tale of romance. The few minutes before sunset is where the sun holds the poets in its dalliance. The explosion of romance spills over the voyeuristic sky — which in turn blushes in pink and rose, covering its blues of the day.
In a few lines, the poet has captured the imagination of the reader, turning the sunset into a daily ‘affair’, without much effort. I am in love with this verse. Aren’t you?
Poem 2: Sun: Two liners
The sun has never seen the darkness
what would he understand of povertyWhen all night, million lights fight
Sun tears apart the darknessIt may not be right for me to become the sun
how much should I rise that you may notice me~Vineet Raj Kapoor
Commentary on Poem 2:
Vineet writes two liners — each has a different dimension to the topic. The short message is that the Sun is high and mighty, and powerful. This leads to the poet to explore multiple dimensions of such unbridled power.
The sun has never seen the darkness
what would he understand of poverty
How can the giver of light not realize the darkness? It is possible, because where the Sun turns to see, he lights the objects up, so he sees his light. Let us go beyond the literal sense of this.
Can a healer feel the pain? Should she live and experience the suffering, so that she knows the darkness of poverty and pain? If she does not experience, how will she know the wonders of her gift of healing?
Does a giver need to know the pain of the poor? Does a doctor need to experience the trauma of a patient? It is a searching question. A giver can alleviate or remove the pain, but the experience of poverty may still be there. Poverty of life, soul and body.
If the blessed or the healed — the former sufferer of poverty — is a nihilist, then there is bound to be hang over. But for the healer, who can see only the smiles of the healed, there is no need to experience the poverty.
When all night, million lights fight
Sun tears apart the darkness
We all have read that Sun is a star. Yet, when it glows on us, we see all but a blue sky. It is when the Sun is away, we see the stars. So why one star can blind us with its light, while a million of them flicker and fight when the Sun is not around?
For one, the Sun is like the lion that walks in alone and singlehandedly ends the squabble between the million stars — the minions who flicker and fade in its bright light.
In a metaphoric sense, the words peal a layer of the poet’s mind, and in it we find this message: ‘In the darkness of ignorance, the million pretenders fight, while the purveyor of wisdom appears to quell the darkness itself.’
It may not be right for me to become the sun
how much should I rise that you may notice me
How will you notice me? How far should I go to get my attention? What is that I need to do? ‘How much should I rise, because I am not sure!’
There is a sense of cluelessness, anguish and expectation to get your attention. Did you notice? Should I become the sun — rise high and bright enough? Can I?
It could be the child’s attention craving for her parents. Such attention craving is a sliding slope, as there is always a mountain to climb, sometimes probably too high, or there is an expectation to rise high and shine, perhaps like the sun. To match somebody’s expectations is like chasing the tail, there is no end.
A simple, yet powerful message again.
The poet’s two liners are loaded, metaphoric and yet straight forward. Sun is the object of his introspection, and he sees the fault lines on Earth from its high and mighty position.
Lover’s muse and Philosopher’s totem:
The poets discover the Sun based on their own thoughts. The Sun is what the beholder deems it to be. For one, it is the lover’s muse and for another, it is the philosopher’s totem.
“The Sun is such a lonely star. Whenever he comes out to see his friends, they all disappear.”
― Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Vol. 1
Dear Sun,
You are not alone. Our poets are here, as lovers and philosophers, to make your day, make you relevant — beyond you shining on us to give us our day, bread, breath and life.
You are a poet’s dream — well, I would rather say, day dream.
~Ashok Subramanian
