This is an early version of the poem What amazes you most about our world - for teachers to explore and discuss while encouraging their students to compose poems about life. This can be used before listening to the longer poem.

1. What amazes you most about our world?
A poem by Diana Chaudhuri, early version 7th July 2007
What amazes you most about our world?
Is it the quiet flame of a candle
Or the screaming thunder of a hurricane?
Is it the still, green-gold dappled fragrance of a forest
Or a volcano bursting from the deeps
With all the pent up fury of frustrated cosmic power,
Ripping open the earth, exploding in violence. on and on,
A mountain, pulverised in seconds, a crater miles wide and deep,
The rock blasted far into the atmosphere, many miles high,
The dust of it softly drifting down on the other side of the world?
What amazes you most about our world?
Is it the cool, delicate, perfection of beauty
A tiny wild flower growing in the grass, you can hold it in your hand,
You can give it to a friend. chickweed, speedwell, stitchwort, pimpernel?
Or is it the ocean, vast, fathomless, boundlessly deep, constantly on the move,
Looking out sun-warm from the beach -
The sea is calm, blue-like-the-sky, mirror-bright against the sun,
Little wave-ripples run up the sand singing a gentle whispering song.
Looking out salt-drenched, from the bleak wind-swept shore -
Clouds dark and ominous, ripped apart by lightening,
Rain merged with a bitter, bullet-hard hail of wave-torn spray,
The sea is storm-grey, steely towers of muscular water, solid as rock,
Polished-power, green-black-serpentine mountains, racing forward,
Inexorably advancing snow-capped mountains, rising, towering, terrifying,
Invincible, unstoppable, enveloping everything, overflowing,,
Toppling, curling over slowly, breaking, crashing, raw and elemental
Roaring, screaming, smashing, and shattering, plumes of spray
flung fifty-feet high fall churning into chaos….
‘In the beginning was darkness and the ocean and the spirit of God moved over the water….’
What amazes you most about our world?
Is it the tiny interlocking ice-crystal stars of a snowflake,
Hold your breath as you watch it caught on the dark sleeve of your coat
Breathe and it melts - in a second it has gone?
Or is it the sunset, lighting the clouds in pink and gold farewell,
A symphony of emotion, colours swelling and spreading,
Deeper, wider, breathless beauty enveloping the sky…
Cerise, purple, orange and crimson, cyclamen brilliance fade
To palest peach and cream… deepen to mauve-grey and navy,
The sky behind darkens from silver to deep electric blue
Darkness overflowing from the shadows, spreads from the east
And all the colours are swamped in inscrutable, fathomless dark
As the stars come out one by one…. The blue intensifies to pure black-velvet…
And fills with endless crystal constellations……
What amazes you most about our world?
Have you ever seen a shooting star, the Northern Lights,
The sparkle of starlight reflected and glinting on the frosted snow?
And what about rivers and mountains, deserts and snowfields?
Golden fields of oil-seed, rippling fields of corn?
What about rainbows, butterflies and buttercup meadows,
What about the birds and animals? Which are your favourites
Dolphin or deer, elephant or eagle…
Have you ever watched a chick hatch from an egg? Have you ever watched kittens born?
Have you seen a new-born baby with tiny perfect fingers curled around your own?
What about children, their eyes reflecting your own soul of love and oneness?
What about your own dear friends and family, Music, tears and laughter?
Have you ever fallen to your knees, heart shaken with boundless wonder, gratitude and love?
What about life!