Learning About Perspective

Carl Griffin

When I read that rainbows curve
into full circles, I put my classmates

in the picture. Miss, I say,
rainbows actually loop full circle.

Come Summer Camp, I re-enlighten,
throw crayons back to my dormmates,

Rainbows continue underground.
Their faces do not break out in awe.

I greet strangers with my book:
But at ground level we just see light

reflected by raindrops in our eyeline.
Months on, my teacher rattles out

the tired theory. My summer pen pals
post me fresh scribbles of a radiant arc. 

Jogging home following a downpour
I catch a rainbow of my own, and forget

that the colours lead down and back 
into themselves. Instead, the bendy stripes 

shoot off at all angles, and the horizon 
spreads towards treasure, truth, to me

yearning for a future of untold colour.

The Science

Rainbows are actually full circles, not the half-circle, or the arc, the majority of us grew up believing. The antisolar point is the centre of the circle. People in aircraft can sometimes see these circular rainbows, but viewers on the ground (so, most of us) can only see the light reflected by raindrops above the horizon. The circle (or half-circle) results from suspended droplets in the atmosphere that are capable of concentrating the dispersed light at deviating angles. Reflection gives you the shape of the rainbow, while the refraction is what conjures up the colours.

The Poet

Carl Griffin is from South Wales. His first poetry collection, Throat of Hawthorn, was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2019. In 2020, his book-length poem, Arrival at Elsewhere, written for charity with the help of one hundred poets, was published by Against the Grain.

Next poem: Light reflected from raindrops by Rachel Adatia