Thursday 16 May 2013

Day 300: Another Perspective



Perspective. It's a miraculous thing. It can remove the veneer from our eyes and reveal all kinds of treasures.

There are many things in life that offer perspective and poetry is certainly one of them.

This famous poem 'A Martian Sends a Postcard Home'  explains it quite well, wherein an alien visitor to this planet takes notes of the earth to send back home. And the earth he surmises is a magical and mysterious place, even the mundane ordinary things seem amazing to this being like - 'rain is when the earth is television'; cars 'free the world for movement'; and the humans, well, they're the most wonderful (just look at the last lines.) Yes, this life truly is a gift.  
 


A Martian Sends a Postcard Home - Craig Raine 

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings -

they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on ground:

then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under tissue paper.

Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the property of making colours darker.

Model T is a room with the lock inside -
a key is turned to free the world

for movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.

But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.

In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
that snores when you pick it up.

If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep

with sounds. And yet they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.

Only the young are allowed to suffer
openly. Adults go to a punishment room

with water but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises

alone. No one is exempt
and everyone's pain has a different smell.

At night when all the colours die,
they hide in pairs

and read about themselves -
in colour, with their eyelids shut. 

1 comment:

  1. Do You Need Finance? Are You Looking For Finance? Are You Looking For Finance To Enlarge Your Business? We Help Individuals And Companies To Obtain Finance For Business Expanding And To Setup A New Business Ranging Any Amount. Get Finance At Affordable Interest Rate Of 3%, Do You Need This Finance For Business And To Clear Your Bills? Then Send Us An Email Now For More Information Contact Us Now Via Financialserviceoffer876@Gmail.Com Whats-App +918929509036 Dr James Eric Finance Pvt Ltd Thank

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear what you think! To leave a comment - comment as/sign in with your Google ID if you have one, or website or blog address, or if these don't apply, sign in as Anonymous, and leave your name if you like!