POST 10 : INDIVIDUAL DOCUMENT ON THE POWER OF LIFE
SKY PIECE I
Towards the end of the Second World War, I looked like a little ghost because of the food shortage. I was hungry. It was getting easier to just lie down and watch the sky. That’s when I fell in love with the sky, I think.
Since then, all my life, I have been in love with the sky. Even when everything was falling apart around me, the sky was always there for me. It was the only constant factor in my life, which kept changing with the speed of light and lightning. As I told myself then, I could never give up on life as long as the sky was there.
Tell us when you first noticed the sky.
Tell us when you first noticed that the sky was beautiful.
YOKO ONO
For the great majority of people, Yoko Ono is known for being the second wife and the widow of John Lennon, singer and song-writer of The Beatles. But what is really astonishing is her vivacity and breath-taking artistic career, as Yoko Ono is in fact one of the most popular multimedia artist and peace activist nowadays.
In order to show the power of resilience and positivity, I have chosen the poem Sky Piece I included in the book Acorn published in 2014 as a set of "action poems" bearing the author's sensibility and love for life. In addition, the reader should take into account Ono's background, as she was born in Japan in 1933 and she has been a direct witness of the destruction of her country by the time of the World War II. Sixteen years later, Yoko Ono reconsiders and analyzes the terrible experiences she had to pass through when she was just a child.
Picture of Acorn book cover.
The poem starts with a reference to the Second World War which introduces the reader into a sort of ephemeral flashback. We can already set up a picture of devastated Japanese landscapes because of bombings during war. The poem carries on with "I looked like a little ghost because of food shortage" (v. 1-2), the expression used is very mild considering the terrible topic we are talking about, as if Ono was telling a bed side story to a child.
By the time of Tokyo bombings, the Ono family were forced to beg for food in the street as starvation was killing the whole country. Yoko Ono declared that it was during this dramatic period in her life that she developed her "aggressive and sharp" attitude, in order to defend herself in such a tough situation.
She used to lie down and look up to the sky to find some rest and peace until she fell in love with it. Here we have an opposition between two sceneries. Firstly a destroyed ground, with buildings torn apart, fire and desperate people fighting for some food. Secondly the sky, peaceful and purely blue, representing stability away from the noise of bombs crashing and people suffering. Yoko Ono as a child was between these two opposite worlds.
Since she had fallen in love with the sky, the author has been able to face her problems and issues in life, as if the sky was a source of hope and stability for her. It is precisely because of that that the poems carries on with "Even when everything was falling apart around me, the sky was always there for me" (v.6-7). Indeed, the sky is also defined as "the only constant factor in my life" (v.7) as the sky is always peaceful and stable in contradistinction to life on earth. Our lives are constantly changing in positive or negative ways, which means that a humans are trying to survive everyday without being aware of what is coming next.
In the poem, Yoko Ono points out that there is always hope, we just need to look up at the sky and fall in love with its simplicity and calmness.
In order to show the power of resilience and positivity, I have chosen the poem Sky Piece I included in the book Acorn published in 2014 as a set of "action poems" bearing the author's sensibility and love for life. In addition, the reader should take into account Ono's background, as she was born in Japan in 1933 and she has been a direct witness of the destruction of her country by the time of the World War II. Sixteen years later, Yoko Ono reconsiders and analyzes the terrible experiences she had to pass through when she was just a child.
Picture of Acorn book cover.
The poem starts with a reference to the Second World War which introduces the reader into a sort of ephemeral flashback. We can already set up a picture of devastated Japanese landscapes because of bombings during war. The poem carries on with "I looked like a little ghost because of food shortage" (v. 1-2), the expression used is very mild considering the terrible topic we are talking about, as if Ono was telling a bed side story to a child.
By the time of Tokyo bombings, the Ono family were forced to beg for food in the street as starvation was killing the whole country. Yoko Ono declared that it was during this dramatic period in her life that she developed her "aggressive and sharp" attitude, in order to defend herself in such a tough situation.
She used to lie down and look up to the sky to find some rest and peace until she fell in love with it. Here we have an opposition between two sceneries. Firstly a destroyed ground, with buildings torn apart, fire and desperate people fighting for some food. Secondly the sky, peaceful and purely blue, representing stability away from the noise of bombs crashing and people suffering. Yoko Ono as a child was between these two opposite worlds.
Since she had fallen in love with the sky, the author has been able to face her problems and issues in life, as if the sky was a source of hope and stability for her. It is precisely because of that that the poems carries on with "Even when everything was falling apart around me, the sky was always there for me" (v.6-7). Indeed, the sky is also defined as "the only constant factor in my life" (v.7) as the sky is always peaceful and stable in contradistinction to life on earth. Our lives are constantly changing in positive or negative ways, which means that a humans are trying to survive everyday without being aware of what is coming next.
In the poem, Yoko Ono points out that there is always hope, we just need to look up at the sky and fall in love with its simplicity and calmness.
"I COULD NEVER GIVE UP ON LIFE AS LONG AS THE SKY WAS THERE"
To finish off the poem, the author asks the readers to tell when was the first time they noticed the sky's beauty. There is a contrast between the poem's imaginary world and the actual world, as it makes the reader think about his personal experience with hope and love for nature. This implies a lesson of simplicity and humility given by Yoko Ono.
To put it in a nutshell, Sky Piece I may seem to be a quiet simple poem while it is a very precious work of art about self love and strength that everybody should read to realize that there is always hope in life.
This is the reason why we may consider that Yoko Ono has always seen the sky as a source of inspiration and hope, as if she was listening to a sort of God that will always protect her. Power of resilience and positivity help to find hope in simple elements in life and to love nature. It is not about a material power as we may have seen in other documents (power of weapons, money, consumerism...), but about the power of life that overcomes the power of death.
We shouldn't be afraid of destiny as long as the sky will be up there protecting us.
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