The beauty of the night

The beauty of the night

(PART I)
There is a beauty in darkness,
It is mysterious,
It hides and only partially reveals,
It softens tones, and mellows stones.

There is a beauty in darkness,
You see the stars and the moon,
As you o’er your damsel swoon,   
And watch pebbles in a stream reflect the moon.


Light causes a naked exposure,
And things are best when not all is shown.
Romanticism starts only after dusk,
Once light has begun to sombre tones.

(PART II)
In the city there is always light,
As you look up at the sky at night,
All you see is a yellow light,
that to your eyes feels like a bite.

There isn’t a vision of black anymore.
In the days of yore,
The stars were uncountable,
But it ain’t so any more.

The smog and all the pollution,
Clog our vision,
And the perpetual lighting of our vibrant life,
Have caused our lives to be full of strife.

(PART III) 
I do wish I could run away,
Go back to the age of nine again.
In a village I watched all the stars that shone.
In the darkness of the night,

All you heard were the croaking toads,
And not a man was seen down on the roads.
Now the woods have gone,
And the jungle is all a concrete mess,

Every night at eight,
The lights come on and its day again.
Maybe go back to a time,
When night and day were different things,

Night always had a different charm,
As every night it told me new secrets.
My friend the Moon,
And my sister Venus,

Talked for hours on end, every night,
Until the sleep fairy came and said Goodnight, sleep tight.
Every night now when I look at the sky,
It is full of dust and smog and ash.

My old friends are still there,
But it is all now more of a haze.
I wish I could run back,
To a place where the night ain’t light, and burning bright!
Mukund P Rao
(July 10, 2010)


To read more about the problems night lighting causes please visit
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100707/full/news.2010.339.html