Bubbles: Moments of joy

This was something of a ‘Wow’ moment. I had just squeezed the washing up liquid bottle to throw it in the recycling bin and as I applied pressure the bubble emerged from the nozzle and grew. At the moment the picture was taken the bubble had contracted a little but still had the wonderful spectrum of colours that every soap bubble demonstrates. So just a moment to remind me of the genesis of the little story that follows.

There was a delightful moment whilst taking a short tour of Cambridge (UK) recently. A toyshop (now sadly gone - no doubt a victim of higher rents) had a bubble blowing machine sending small clouds of bubbles into the street...

Squeals of delight

and children's gleeful laughter

peal out above the sounds

of sullen unsatisfied shoppers.

A shaft of sudden sunlight

joins the children's fun,

playing joyfully with the

cascade of bubbles

floating freely but fragile

in a gusty wind.

In the brief moments of their lives

that radiance is taken in hand

by those pliable spheres.

Rainbows emerge,

freed from their boundaried arcs,

to dance exuberantly in the

exquisite transparency of the

diaphonous membranes.

The physics of light and air

and soapy fluid,

yoked together,

to provide a beautiful blessing
that is all too fleeting.

This is one of a collection of Beauty, Science and Faith poems on this blog. An index of the others can be found HERE.

And here’s a remarkable bubble picture: ‘Magic Bubble’ fluid on sale in a pier shop at Southwold. So - at £1.99,will it work? It did the bubbles harden after a minute or so and if the children are patient they can handle them. This bubble was blown before lunch with our grandchildren and discovered AFTER lunch clinging to the leaf. The leaf was picked up, carried indoors and photographed: amazing! Beauty on Beauty. Photo by Sarah, our lovely daughter-in-law. (October half-term 2016)

And here’s me enjoying producing a big one!