In July 2015, I spent time with the glorious book, “Iona, The Other Island’ by
Kenneth Steven (Words) and Iain Sarjeant (Photos) I have had permission from
Kenneth to post one of his poems which aligns beautifully with the main focus
of this blog. I am especially delighted at this, as Kenneth is an author of
note, with his books published in sixteen languages and tributes from such as
Ted Hughes and Magnus Magnusson I am also grateful to Ann Dankin of Kyleakin in
Skye for allowing me to publish her Gaelic translation of Gliese 581. Another
veritable feast! This poem features in Kenneth’s book of poetry entitled ‘Evensong’.
Links to Kenneth’s website and blog are at the foot of this posting.
Gliese 581
If we should find
some other star –
Half a century
away, still in the silence of the sky –
We’d leave (the
ones who had the money for the fare),
This planet
gassed and poisoned by our wars.
We’d look back
one last time in wonder
On the blue
beauty of our home left empty:
A gust of toppled
promises,
Growing further
off (but never less).
Then dark and
doubt, and fifty years
To get to
somewhere only telescopes had seen;
Unbegun and
perfect,
Our chance to
start again.
And in the
beginning we’d believe we could;
We’d keep our
promises for sure.
But then the
shadow of ourselves
Would fall, we
would forget –
And on the eighth
day
We’d be
whispering for war.
And in Gaelic
Gliese is a red dwarf star about 20 light
years away from Earth in the constellation of Libra. It has a planets rotating
around it and for a while one of them was thought to be the most promising
exoplanet for hosting life. More recently the Kepler Space telescope has found
more likely candidates at similar distances in space .
See more about Kenneth’s writings and listen to him on his website by clicking here
ALSO Call up Kenneth’s blog (Including the poem ‘Twelve’ by clicking here
ALSO read my comments on the book mentioned at the head of this posting ‘Iona, The Other Island’ HERE