VERSE

...BRIAN WICKER (Brian Wicker is Commonweal's regular correspondent in Great Britain...

...Meanwhile, the Windscale enquiry into the pros and cons of nuclear waste processing and the development of fast-breeder reactors in Britain goes on...

...But the blade, At the last minute, hesitates And does not fall, And the body does not open, And you are what you are-Trapped, heavy and visible Under the rain, only your vision Delicate as old leaves skimming Over the mounds of the seasons, The limits of everything, The few shaped bones of time...

...It is interesting, though doubtless futile, to speculate whether this piece of public-opinionforming had any noticeable effect on the cabinet decision finally to go for the immediate discussion rather than the immediate dissemination of nuclear energy, as the first priority of public policy, despite the pleas of the pro-nuclear interests to get on with the job and bow to what they regard as the inevitable...

...public debate, many organizations, from universities to churches, and from the Friends of the Earth to the big energy corporations, will be involved in mounting their own educational programs and confrontations, and publicizing their own propaganda exercises on behalf of their points of view...

...The case for has now been completed: and shortly, the public will begin to hear something positive of the case against...

...Only a few days ago, a list of fifteen hundred anti-nuclear signatories was published in The Guardian as a first shot across the bows of the pro-nuclear lobby...

...The best organized of the anti-nuclear bodies, the Friends of the Earth, is poised to launch its counterattack on the case put up by British Nuclear Fuels...

...The costs of the enquiry are becoming so great that there is some chance that the anti-nuclear ease may go by default simply because the various lobbies cannot afford to keep their counsel retained for the length of time needed to do justice to the argument...

...But there is a problem of money to be faced even now...

...It would be a tragedy if this were to happen: surely if the government means business with its commitment to the 'great debate' it should see to it, somehow, that both sides get the money they need to mount their arguments successfully...

...I I November 1977:710...

...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 MARY OLIVER YOU KNOW BOW I T FEELS You know how it feels, Wanting to walk into The rain and disappear-Wanting to feel your life Brighten and grow weightless As a leaf in the fall...

...And sometimes, for a moment, You feel it beginningmthe sense Of escape sharp as a knife-blade Hangs over the dark field Of your body, and your soul Waits just under the skin To leap away over the water...