Poet-in-residence - At midnight the town is electric
People worldwide are being asked to switch off their lights for ‘Earth Hour’ on 29 March 2008 to show how a simple action can help reduce global warming.
Clusters of townsfolk converge
on squares, in parks, on bridges.
Houses lie naked behind them.
The subtle buzz that cloaks the roads
is gone. Shop-fronts, play-grounds, signs
lay black. The definition of darkness spreads.
Shadows coalesce.
Senses flicker into life.
Those afraid of the dark begin to see
there are no absolutes.
They criss-cross each other with grace,
hold each other’s hands, stretch
fingers towards new shapes.
The intimacy the dark concedes
thrills through the town.
One by one they begin
to look up. They see the stars
morph from sparse blooms
to blades of light massed tight
as grass. A sight so dense it shifts
all layers on earth – the town
begins to shake. Universes
that co-exist shut off one by one
as the lights come back on.
Science Museum, February 2008
By Heidi Williamson, our poet-in-residence.
This poem was inspired by the Re-plumbing the Planet event on Thursday 28 February 2008.