Neutrinos

Millions of elementary particles race though the glass rooster’s

transparent body, from the sun, from the sun. Tau neutrinos,

electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos. Products of nuclear reactions,

products of beta decay. Fragments of space inside him,

connecting him to the wide, hot stars that seem distant and high

because he must look up to see them, but which, really,

are all around him, all the time. To the brick-brown hen,

he says: hen, we are the children of stars, we are made

from the same substance, let me take you through galaxies,

oh I will show you such things – Rarotongan sea-horses and

crystals the length of buses, hen, that are made from the

same stuff as us.
.

© Janis Freegard

Published in The Glass Rooster, Auckland University Press, 2015

Reproduced on “…Anything, Really” with permission.

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About The Poem:

The Glass Rooster (Auckland University Press), a book of poems by fellow Tuesday poet, Janis Freegard, was launched very recently, on June 16—and I am absolutely delighted to be able to feature a poem from the book today.

My only difficulty, really, was in choosing which poem to feature, because so many of those available “spoke” to me in their different ways (and with their myriad siren voices.)

But, in the end, how could I go past the eponymous glass rooster himself:

“Fragments of space inside him,

connecting him to the wide, hot stars that seem distant and high

because he must look up to see them..”

I love the way the rooster captures the sense of ourselves in relation to both the physical immensity and the infinite detail that is the universe, which is indeed, “all around [us], all the time.”

The poem manages to encompass both wonder:

“…let me take you through galaxies …

…Rarotongan sea-horses and

crystals the length of buses”

with the delight of a little man (rooster!) ‘splaining thrown in:

“To the brick-brown hen,

he says: hen …

… oh I will show you such things“

I hope you enjoy Neutrinos today — and if you haven’t already discovered Janis Freegard, check out her poetry and other writing presto.

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About The Poet:

Janis Freegard lives in Wellington, with an historian and a cat, and works in the public service. Her first full-length poetry collection, Kingdom Animalia: The Escapades of Linnaeus, was published by Auckland University Press in 2011. She is also the author of a chapbook, The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider (Anomalous Press, 2013), and co-author of AUP New Poets 3 (AUP, 2008).

Her poetry has appeared in a wide range of journals and anthologies in New Zealand and overseas, including Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page (Random House, 2014), Best NZ Poems 2012, and Landfall. Janis also writes fiction, is a past winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award, and has recently published her first novel, The Year of Falling, with Mākaro Press.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here.