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13 Jan 2025

Jack
B Bedell

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Full
Moon

Jan 29th

Dec 30th

Sungazing

After Kei Ito’s series

Each Tolling Sun

The artist brings his sledgehammer

down on a flat sheet of metal


he plans to use to catch sunlight.

He wants to cast that light onto


photo paper in bursts of energy.

He needs us to feel its sudden heat.


Each hammer blow echoes around

his studio like spots of time,


memories of his grandfather walking

the streets near Hiroshima,


school bells, heartbeats.

Over ninety-three million miles away,


atoms burst apart inside the sun.

Each tiny explosion births


the light he hopes will burn

his paper with red and orange


and gold circles. Fires

to remind us all of our mistakes.

Behind the poem...

At the Hilliard Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana, I led a workshop featuring Kei Ito’s series, Each Tolling Sun. I was profoundly moved by his images, knowing Ito’s connection to ancestors harmed in the bombing of Hiroshima, and his intent to shed light on the inhumanity of nuclear war. I was also stunned by the innovative techniques Ito used: the physicality involved in his process, the lasting resonance of each piece. I felt compelled to write Sungazing – both in tribute, and in debt, to the artist.

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© 2025 Original Authors

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