Rise and Fall of the Lesser Sun Gods

Poetry is slippery, elusive. Every word, every hard return, every bit of punctuation, even the blank spaces in between…they all confer meaning. And four dozen poems, one after the other, forming an interwoven whole? That’s depths of meaning to plumb for ages.

Rise and Fall of the Lesser Sun Gods is a transcendent work, melding observational science with theology and mythology to ponder the stars themselves. Bond juxtaposes those giant fiery masses in the sky with the very atoms from which all matter is built, bringing together the microscopic and macroscopic and placing himself, one man, once a boy, at the heart of the equation.

Rich in evocative imagery and lyrical conundrums, Bond’s poetry makes words dance in and out of meaning as you read them. “One and one are eleven, says the logic / of chisels. They cannot make them one mark.”

As each page turns, another poem is revealed, offering greater symbolism to the work as a whole. It’s an onion in reverse, each layer adding depth instead of bringing you closer to the core. Like the solar system, this is an intricate machine, growing ever more complex as the camera zooms out and you can see more and more of the greater picture.