the lion’s gate by Mariya Gusev

roar of tiny suns
they call them dandelions
for a good reason

by Mariya Gusev

This poem was inspired by research that allows us to ‘see’ inside the sun by listening to the dynamic movement of the sun. It was also inspired by the song ‘Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)’ by They Might be Giants:

The sun is mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace.
Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.
Yo ho it’s hot, the sun is not a place where we could live.
But here on earth there’d be no life without the light it gives.
We need its light, we need its heat, we need its energy.
Without the sun, without a doubt, there’d be no you and me.

The sun is far away, about 93,000,000 miles away, and that’s why it looks so small.
And even when it’s out of sight, the sun shines night and day.

Further reading:

‘Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)’, 1994, Song by They Might Be Giants, available: https://youtu.be/3JdWlSF195Y?feature=shared

‘Sounds of the Sun’, 2018, Young, A., NASA Goddard, available: https://youtu.be/_fKkr7D807Y?si=83hug-jZccvbEdPF

Author bio:

Mariya Gusev co-edits Haiku Pause, a formal haiku newsletter on Substack. Her work has recently appeared in publications including LEAF, The Heron’s Nest, The Mainichi, Failed Haiku, Trash Panda, Asahi Haikuist Network, Haiku Girl Summer, the Kyoto Haiku Project, and the Akita International Haiku Network, and has won awards and mentions in the Tricycle Magazine haiku challenge, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku invitational, the Kiyoshi and Kyoko Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest 2024, and the Wales Haiku Journal Summer Contest 2025.

Read more sciku by Mariya: ‘eons’ and ‘The Sands of Time’.