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OUR HERD OF COLTISH YOUNG OBSERVATORIES Blessing Their Corral on lofty Mauna Kea |
 The new, linked submillimeter-array observatories at the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. The photo has been vertically enhanced. |
By PAUL HERTELENDY
of TheColumnists.com
I
Tensions flared when some
one called construction
On this holy mountain “desecration.”
Only proper consecration
Could prevail to save the day.
Ancient culture and the
new-millennium science intersect
Atop the sacred mount--volcano Mauna Kea,
Miles above the ringing stands of native koa trees
Beloved by the bygone kings.
It’s high enough to take your breath away,
With views of sea, of islands falling off horizon’s edge,
to match.
II
The look-alike observatories
astronomic,
Uncle Sam’s most recent high-tech breakthrough,
Now stands bright, alert and restless.
Perched on lava rock and sand,
Corralled like herds of pastured robot colts
Still wet behind the ears,
They turn their heads of metal
This-a-way and that, in teamwork unison,
To show their mettle.
III
Our time machines into the murky past
Will whisper, soft and deft, discoveries
Of stars unplumbed, and even those unborn.
Unique technologies will open up their firmament
To see some pinpoints light-years off in space
By reading microscopic millimeter waves both day and night,
Thus racing past the wildest fantasies of pulp-book fiction,
Turning savants into astronomic obstetricians
Who will hover over birthing of the stars.
IV
This frigid day of summit
dedication brings,
Not politicians, but a priest-like figure
Called the kumu, animist in toga
And some necklaces of shells and leaves,
Each chosen one by one.
Instead of ribbon-cutting,
A ceremony highlights cutting
At the hanging spray of local branches
Taken from:
The pili grass,
Laua‘e,
And the leaf from tree they call kukui.
The kumu strikes,
his adze chops clean
And hits against the koa board
To symbolize detaching of the cord umbilical in birth.
The kumu chants
his oli (sing-song prayers to ancestors)
To plead for health, good life and wisdom
On behalf of all involved,
While Uncle Sam treads lightly on the constitutional thin ice
That spans Hawaii’s sacred ground.
With severance of cord,
The kumu wanders through the offices,
Dispensing wat’ry blessings spraying from the ti
leaves,
Purifying and protecting.
Once complete, the gathered
bundled scientists and Nobel laureates
In their winter gear all smile and clap
With hearty thump-thump of the ski gloves.
V
Even skeptics join the
approbation.
And, why not? Volcano’s goddess surely must feel pacified.
The sacred-mountain demonstrators vaporized.
The blessing worked.
The peak has yet to rumble, spew or steam.
And scientists will soon be served
Their fast-flow data diet
Coming from the sky like manna,
Captured in those hard-drive baskets,
Shedding light on heaven’s darkest corners launching new
stars,
Some immeasurably grander than our sun.
---11/22/03, Mauna Kea (13 796’), Big Island of Hawaii
Note: laua‘e is
pronounced like “low-AH, eh?” It is a Hawaiian plant.
| ©2004 by Paul Hertelendy. Paul Hertelendy is a critic with the San Francisco Bay Area arts website www.artssf.com. To visit his website, click here: PAUL |
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