Solar Dawn

Hot Poets - Sparks

In March-April 2022 Liv Torc brought together a group of poets (the Hot Poets: Sparks) to produce poetry on the theme of changing the 'doom narrative' in the communication of climate change information.  This followed her success with the Hot Poets project at COP26.  Each participant chose a climate conscious innovation or 'spark' to research with an expert in that field and produce a performance poem, which was developed with Liv Torc, Chris Redmond and the wider group over a series of online workshops, culminating in a performance evening.

I chose to write about solar energy and approached Abi Lamberti, the most energetic of Energy Managers at Somerset County Council, to be my expert collaborator. 

A book containing all the Sparks Poems from this project will be published in November by Liv Torc, to coincide with COP27. Thank you to everyone I met on this journey, I can't wait to see our work in print!

Solar Dawn
(read with energy)

Standing here in 2040,
looking out over the fields 
where I took my daily Boris walks
in the ‘great’ Covid lockdowns of the 20s;
that precious, wild and diverse landscape 
which saved my sanity, 
buttercups and sunflowers illuminating sunshine smiles
onto our four-walled faces, 
re-energising our faith
that humanity could collaborate, 
with each other and nature, 
to defeat a common enemy;

I breathe again… 

For here before me I gaze -
stretching far beyond the event-horizon;

giving thanks to the rejuvenation generation,

for row after row, 

not of crops, but photovoltaic cells – 

I celebrate the solar-dawn,
with the same exaltation 
as my first hug, first exhalation, post-covid. 

You see, these silicon arrays synthesise photosynthesis, 
tracking the sun's rays, 
like millions of sun-worshippers on golden sandy beaches;
before Covid grounded the planes 
and we realised that the best holidays 
were those spent in the arms of those closest to us. 

Before the wars and the scarcity and the suffering…

I remember how we gathered, at stone circles and ground zeros, 
giving thanks together at the Summer Solstice, 
to Sol and Ra and all the 21st century god-like heroes 
who helped us through those climatically challenging pandemic years; 
Spiritual energies rising anew across the expanses of our barren lands. 

I give thanks that we were brave enough then, 
to breathe through that pregnant pause, 
to give birth to a new normal;
ending our resource-hungry relationship with fossil fuels,
to go, full circle - 

to put the sun back into the centre of our universe, the centre of our lives.
To stop seeing the sun as our eternal adversary;
because, just like the Earth in its orbit, astronomically, 
we are a solar-dependent body, positively – 

electron-bonded to our sun,
for life. 

(Electric word life, it means forever…)

I give thanks to the landowners
of brownfield sites and war-abandoned crop-starved farms 

for uniting -

with 2020 vision,

to sow electric fields;
uploading Megawatt peaks of power to our local communities, 
to decarbonise our built environment, 
our homes, workplaces and schools: 
to nurture a renewable-mindset, 
to cultivate clean green jobs from the oily ashes of our industrialised past, 
storing and exporting energy to feed our neighbours' grids, 

and mouths. 

I give thanks that we learned to share the solar-love so -

that we might transport the next generation - sustainably, 
across boundaries that no longer have a place in this whole-world view, 
into the future. 

Regenerating hope. 

All this joy I bear witness to, in microcosm, 
just as a little ray of sunshine excites electrons in a solar cell.

A Wensley